I haven't had the chance or maybe I should say the strength to write to my tripawd friends until now but I wanted to share our loss of Cody with the friends that had been there with so much support as we faced his cancer together. We had to say goodbye on December 30th.

It was so hard because the day before he was playing with toys and had jumped up on the couch to snuggle with us before bedtime. Yes, he had been slowing down and the coughs were a little more frequent but he was still full of energy, wanting to play, eating well…there were no real clues that this would be his last day with us. When we woke the next morning he was curled up by the front door shaking and somewhat despondent. We rushed to UW-Madison–the longest 2 hour drive ever with me in the back seat holding him. They took him to ER, checked him over, did a chest X-ray for us to see the progression of his lung mets….it's a blur….I just remember her saying this may be the right time to let him go.

It's such a hard decision…even with cancer….we brought him to the comfort room and just spent time with him contemplating if we were truly doing the right thing….wasn't he just fine yesterday?? We hugged him and kissed him and professed our undying love as we always have to him his entire life. Trying hard to forever remember the feel of his fur, his smell, his soft eyes…all of him. I knew it was the right time when I laid my head next to his crying like crazy and he didn't lift his head to lick my tears away. Cody ALWAYS gets the tears…even if he has to break into a huddle of limbs and crank your neck up to get to them. Cody hated tears or maybe he liked the salty drops… we never knew for sure but he was always there to comfort you and give you a thorough face licking. But for the first time in his life, he let them fall.

Today, he was tired and these were tears we would need to shed. It's almost been 3 months and we still miss him greatly. The snow is melting in Wisconsin and just yesterday I spotted a few missed Cody “poops” that had been hidden by all the snow. Who would find that endearing but fellow animal lovers? Goodbye my dear sweet angel and thank you again to all who have been there with kind words and advise along the way for David, Myself and Cody. Our lives have been richer having him in our lives and from knowing such warm and generous people that we have met along our cancer journey. God Bless. BTW, We have a few items for the Angel section that we know Cody would want us to pay forward in his honor.

Cathy, David and Cody Angel