Bad Timing (Not for the Squeamish)

[Emmeileia]

Two days ago one of our older retired sled dogs, Emma, had to be put down. Now, most of the time we have to take the dogs to the vets office to be put down, and then the bodies are disposed of by the vet. However, sometimes when the vet is already coming to the forest to check out other dogs, we have her put down the dog on site, to save the dog a big scary car ride. This is what happened with Emma, although there were two horrible instances of bad timing.

The first I did not see, but heard about from my coworker. Apparently, the vet arrived right before a tour group was supposed to have a look around the kennels. So as they came into the kennels, Emma was in the feed shed being euthanized. Bosslady had to quickly warn off my coworker, who was going to show them the feed shed.

The second case of bad timing was when we had to dispose of Emma's body. We creamate the dogs in a big furnace that we have on site...it heats water which heats all the buildings at the main camp. But the person who was disposing of Emma put her in just as a group of 90 13-year-old girls arrived for a two day stay. The smell around camp was TERRIBLE, and the kids all thought it smelled like s'mores or campfire. Poor city kids...they must have had some awful bad smores. We did not have the heart to tell them what it really was...

[bainsidhe]

I know it's sad. It's tragic. But the really dark, morbid side of me did find humor in this. I'm sorry. (Maybe it was your mention of sm'ores?)

[RetailWorkhorse]

Trust me, Baine....it was the mention of the s'mores.

Those city kids must'a had some gnarly gross s'mores.

[PepperElf]

aw poor puppy. i hope she enjoys doggy heaven

when we had to have our first cat euthanized mom made a point of *not* letting sis or i watch. she figured... she'd seen it done before, she'd bear the hurt from it and didn't want the two of us to have to feel it yet.

cat went into the back yard in a little grave we made.

[Fire_on_High]

when we had to have our first cat euthanized mom made a point of *not* letting sis or i watch. she figured... she'd seen it done before, she'd bear the hurt from it and didn't want the two of us to have to feel it yet.

I just can't understand that, unless you were too young to understand death.

I've been with every pet we had to put to sleep other than the doggie that I picked out as a toddler who had kidney failure when I was in kindergarten. I just can't imagine denying even a young child one last chance to see their friend alive, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was a gentle end.