Goodbye, my friend

Tonight, Sean took Rudolph to the vet to be put down. He was rapidly deteriorating. Labwork results today showed very low protein levels; his were 2.2 and critical levels that require plasma tranfusions occur at 2.0. A quiet death was not going to happen naturally. The signs were fairly clear that helping him die peacefully was the right thing to do.

We said our difficult goodbyes around 8:30 p.m. Margaret doesn't really get it, but Mary is very tuned in. She was upset, but she understood the logic behind euthanasia and agreed that we shouldn't let Rudolph suffer any longer. Despite his weakness and discomfort, he still managed to purr and rub our hands. I really lost it when I stuck my fingers in his crate to say my very last goodbye and he rubbed my fingers with both sides of his face. Just like he did when we met him for the first time at the SPCA - the day that he adopted us. He left me with a wonderful final memory.

I also want to give thanks to Sean for his strength and support. After some soul-searching, I realized that I really didn't want to be the one keeping Rudolph company during his final moments. Sean was willing to go by himself. Thank you, love.