Hi Friends,

Opie became immortal today. 
We just couldn’t watch him suffer any longer.  I can’t say that I am sure that he “let us
know” as many have posted that their tripawds have done.  All I know is that yesterday and this
morning, he would not get up to get a drink or to eat.  We have been bringing all that to him.  With encouragement, he struggled to get up on
his feet to go outside to relieve himself and then it was as if he got stuck in
that position.  He would turn and look at
the door with his chest heaving with each shallow breath, but it was as if he
could not muster the energy to take that first hop toward the house.

He no longer had any interest to stay outside.  Tennis balls held no appeal.  He was still drinking and eating, but he
wouldn’t lift his head to do so.  I called
Joe to come home from work.  When the
truck came down the driveway Opie responded with a few barks, but did not turn
his head to investigate.  When Joe came
through the door, Opie wagged the tip of his tail a few times, but there was no
head-splitting smile with the squinty eyes for his pop today.

With encouragement, Opie loaded up into ‘his’ car; his
second home.  He went with me everywhere in
that car.  His ability to get in the car
unassisted caused a glimmer of doubt in my mind that maybe it wasn’t yet time.  I kept looking for those “signs” from Opie; the
ones that everyone talks about. I don’t know if I got them or not.  But then I started thinking, “Do I really
have to let it get to the worst he can bear before I let him go?  Does every tail wag have to be expended
before I set him free?  Is it wrong to
decide not to make him go through more misery given that there is a possibility
or even just a hope of finding a few more ‘good’ days, hours, minutes?     

I know that everyone was saying to give him time and maybe
he would rally, but we couldn’t do it.  I
hope that our decision was made with Opie’s best interest at heart and was not
done just to begin to relieve our discomfort, anxiety, and fear.  I feel as if my daemon has been ripped from my soul.

The people on this site, on tripawds.com, are the reason we
found the strength to go through with the amputation therefore, we thank you for
all the post-amp happy months (a little over six) that we had with our best boy.  Thanks too, for all the help and advice along
the way.

In a few days or weeks, I will do the ‘whole-life’ tribute
to Opie on his blog, but for now I am hoping you will let me stick around on
the site…maybe I can help someone like you all helped me.  Don’t expect too much though, because Opie
was the funny, interesting one…I have always been kind of his straight-man. 

Nancy (Still Opie's mom)