[Dailydrool] Our basset friend Owen is waiting for Elsinore to arrive

[Elizabeth via Dailydrool]

About five o’clock on the morning of April 22 my friend Jennifer called me from a veterinary ER to tell me she was there with our basset friend Owen. He was in distress, and the vet suspected cancer in his abdomen. Owen, who was a gentle soul, tried to bite the vet every time she attempted to examine his stomach.

Owen had been suffering from dementia for some time, needing the lights on at night and feeling anxious unless he was right next to Jennifer. He had lost his hearing, and his eyesight wasn’t as good as it had been either. So Jennifer decided it was time to let him go. He was about our Elsinore’s age, thirteen or fourteen. Jennifer had brought him home a few months before Elsinore came into our lives, and the two were immediately besotted with each other. 

When I came into the room, Owen thumped his tail for me and licked my face. Jennifer and I stroked him until he left, peacefully, at daybreak. 

I am comforted by knowing he’s waiting for Elsinore’s arrival. She’ll probably grump at him because that’s what she always did, but he’ll know she loves him just as much as he loves her. Which is quite a lot. 

Elizabeth