Last Monday, we had to make the decision to send our sweet dog, Mocha, to heaven. We had been talking about this with Ella for a little while and reading books about it. We knew it would probably be within the year, but it was still just as hard as if it had been sudden. We miss him, and the house seems a lot quieter, but know it was the best decision. If you know anything about labs, you know they are prone to hip problems. He was at the point where he couldn't walk on one of his back legs, and just to the point where he couldn't really even sit / stand / lay down and be comfortable. We were really concerned about Ella and how she would handle it, but she has done really well. She looks at the sky and waves to Mocha several times a day, calls him on her phone to check in, and calls him every night on her phone to tell him good night and he is the "best dog in the whole wide world". Let me tell you, on day one and two, these were not easy things to hear her do! We are all past the emotional part of it now, so these things now seem sweet instead of hard to hear.
On a side note, Ella keeps talking about wanting to go to heaven soon to see Mocha. Talk about an interesting conversation to figure out how to handle. I finally told her she could go when she got to be older than my grandparents. That seemed to suffice for a little while anyway. How do you tell your 3 year old, whom you tell heaven is the most amazing place, that she doesn't want to go (and you don't want her to go there) for a LONG LONG time!
So, anyway - here are some pictures of our sweet Mocha. He really was a happy dog, even those these pictures make him look pretty serious and depressed. He only got that way when we dressed him up (which was way too often - he had Halloween costumes, the whole bit). We have so many special memories of him and the various stages of our lives and marriage. We will miss him, but we are glad he isn't in pain anymore like he was those last couple of days.
