Goodbye Sweet

Sweet, our flat-coated retriever, is now gone. As you may know, Sweet developed a large tumor on her left side we had removed in June. It was cancerous and over the past three months she developed two more large tumors which had started bleeding. She maintained a positive attitude throughout, but eventually they were causing her enough discomfort that we decided it was time to put her to sleep. We did so this Tuesday, September 3. She was about 9 years old.

We could not have asked for a better dog, so cheerful, so loving, so well behaved, with such winning ways. She could be anxious at absences, dejected at departures, stubborn about showers, and insistent about play, but she delighted in good food, enjoyed a good rub, and loved to kiss and go a good walk. She would greet someone new with an uplifted paw to shake. She would give her best wolf howl when she was lonely or to return the sound of a siren. She would always be ready to comfort you when you were down.

Even realizing the inevitability and anticipating the end does not lessen the pain of loss. She brought us boundless enthusiasm, endless joy, and enduring love, and we delighted in indulging her. We are grateful to have seen the world through her eyes. The only thing worse than losing her, would have been not to have known her at all. We love you and we miss you.