April 16th 2012 8:57 am
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Found this to be a touching e-mail from Petfinder. She does a good job of putting into words what so many humans might feel when it is time to say goodbye. I especially like the part about the pizza:)

*****
Dear Friends,
This week I said goodbye to my sweet hound, Jim, after six years together. I met him as an old, starving, toothless community dog in Costa Rica with numbered days, so I don't think either of us expected a long relationship. But somewhere around the fourth or fifth medical crisis in which the doctor gave him only a few months, I began to feel as if Jim, who kept surviving the unsurvivable, might, in fact, never leave me. So I fell in love with this dog and his quirky hound-dog behavior. But last week Jim had a series of strokes that left him finally unable to bounce back. A wonderful hospice vet met us at our home, and after sharing a whole pizza in his favorite bed, we said good-bye.

Now, my relief and sorrow blur together. Today Jim is not uncomfortable. Today I am not worried about whether Jim is uncomfortable. And although I would never choose to leave Jim, I am overwhelmed by having had the honor of helping him leave me while he felt loved and peaceful (and full of pizza). As for me, I feel smarter, luckier and humbler for having the chance to love my survivor, Jim. *****

This is just the e-mail snippet.
Here is the url for the whole story:
http://www.petfinder.com/blog/2012/04/09/