No Amount of Money Can Buy This Kind of Compassion

We won the lottery in animal care.

Brody and Boomer, the golden boys.

“I knew we were losing a dog today, I never even thought about the pain of losing our vet family.”

Those were the words I said as I choked back tears on the drive home from putting Brody to sleep last week.

Just a half hour previous to that moment, I stood in a room, holding my sweet dog as every member of our vet practice came in to kiss my best friend goodbye.

For the first time in our lives, we are now a dog free home. And that, well, that has been hard enough in itself. But an unexpected additional pain came about in realizing we would no longer be going in for regular visits to see people who were not just the medical professionals looking after our dogs. They had become something more, much more.

If you are a pet owner, finding the right vet to walk alongside you through the life of your pet is paramount. I’m not sure I fully understood that before this past year.

I want to take you through Brody’s last afternoon. In my heart, I believe this is the experience every single pet owner deserves and should expect from their veterinary practice. It was, perhaps, the most beautiful goodbye I’ve ever witnessed.

We walked into the practice ruined people. We had cried the whole ride in and immediately broke down as the girls met us at the car to help get Brody into the room. His tail wagged as he saw his people. He was in a place he loved, a place where he knew he was loved.

“Someone go get Brody’s cake from the fridge!”

I wasn’t sure I had heard that right. As we got situated in the room, in walked one of Brody’s favorite girls, Stephanie, with a cake stand and a note taped to the glass topper which read, “Save for Brody.”

Chocolate cake for my sweet boy.

Earlier the previous day we had called to make THE appointment. The appointment no one ever wants to make for their dog. The office had a birthday party that afternoon and after hearing tomorrow would be Brody’s last day here with us all, they saved him a piece of chocolate cake! Chocolate cake, people. They wanted his last taste on this earth to be something he was never allowed to have safely before (because of course chocolate is toxic to dogs).

Inside of one minute, Brody’s last moments went from being cloaked in sadness to a room full of celebration. I don’t know how they did that, but I know it takes a mighty special group of people.

And my friends, you know a golden retriever is on his last paws when he is offered a plate full of cake and finds it hard to take more than one bite. Through it all, his tail wagged. Anyone looking in would have thought we were celebrating a birthday, not a last day.

We tried our best to keep things upbeat, but we all knew what was coming, and we all knew that we were there to say goodbye.

One by one, every single vet tech who had ever treated Brody came in to say goodbye, and this part was so hard to watch but also so incredibly beautiful.

My dog sat front and center, like a proud lion, holding strength for every single woman that came to bury her face in his fur and say a final goodbye. All wept openly, as if it were their own dog they were guiding through to the other side, and that both broke me and healed me in ways I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to accurately put into words. As each of Brody’s friends came into the room, his tail wagged with not just recognition but pure love.

Some offered directions for the other side: “Look out for my dad. He has all the cookies.” “My puppy is there waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge. He’ll show you the way.”

Some stepped in to kiss him, tousle his crimped, soft, feathered ears one last time, and hug us as they expressed their condolences.

If we could have bottled the love in that room, in that half hour, I swear we could use it to change the course of the world. It was felt in every corner. It lifted us up from a very dark place that was sure to get darker as the deed was done.

There are so many things I wish I had done differently on that day, on a personal level. So very many things. But the one thing we couldn’t have gotten more right was in choosing this team of people who sat there with us not just in this moment but in every moment leading up to this one.

Our vets, both Mark and Kirsten, have seen us through so much with these dogs over 13 years. And in the final months, for both of our dogs, they, alongside every one of their vet techs, became something else. They weren’t just medical professionals, they were therapists.

They held our hands as we made difficult decisions. They were sources of knowledge and empathy as we tried to navigate the care of our sick and dying pups. They understood our devotion to these two, but also understood that we wished to put their comfort ahead of our selfishness in keeping them with us. We wanted them to have the best life and then we wanted to give them a dignified exit when the time was right. Our vets, this team, helped us navigate that path with honor and care.

But over the years, they’ve given us so much more than just the standard medical care expected of a vet. Our dogs have met Santa Claus because of our vets. Yup, they organized special pet portraits with Santa for the holiday season.

The veterinary practice was also their home away from home. If ever we needed to travel and no one could stay home to look after these two, they were always boarded there. And you know you’ve found the right people to look after your dogs when they don’t even turn around to say goodbye. Once they spotted their favorite travel mom walking out the front door, they would be off like rockets, tails wagging and a spring in their step. Linda was truly their mom away from mom.

This was their second home, a place they were excited to visit and full of people they couldn’t wait to cuddle. That was a first for us. But it has now set the bar.

Before we left our dear Brody, we hugged everyone goodbye and that is when our friends said, “We will miss you. Please feel free to drop by anytime.”

That’s when the other shoe dropped. On this day we weren’t just saying goodbye to our beloved dog, we were also saying goodbye to a whole family. It never occurred to me that we would have no reason to visit, no dog to bring in for treatment or boarding.

As we walked out the door, having said our goodbyes and made promises to return, a paw was placed in our hands to hold space in our lives where another had once been. Ashley, the client care specialist, had given us each a keychain, a paw filled with a locket of Brody’s hair—a piece of him to have forever. I’m not sure what one is supposed to say in moments like this, when someone presents something so special and straight from the heart. I can’t remember what I did say, in fact. But I do know it wasn’t anywhere near what I would have liked to convey in gratitude for their thinking to do this for us.

❤️🐾

And that, my dear friends, is how you know you’ve found a vet who is worthy of caring for the loves of your life.

Without thinking, I said, “We have never been a dog free home and will never be a dog free home. You will see us again soon, I promise. You are our family.”

This was not something we had discussed, but it was a statement that felt as natural as anything else and rooted in truth. We are a family that has dogs. Our family is made whole because of these four-legged friends. They heal us in ways we can never fully understand or translate to others. We just know our home is a home because they are a part of it.

Before you go thinking they were perfect angels to treat, these two were unholy hells as puppies! Boomer used to try and eat my braid and his brother would just sit by and watch like it was a fun game of tug-of-war. Come on, I had to finish with a laugh!

So yes, dogs will come back into this picture. I am convinced Brody and Boomer are behind the scenes now plotting and scheming to send us two pups that are just right. I hope my sweet boys know that they can never be replaced, never replicated or bettered. They were my soul dogs, my best friends.

Let’s see what happens next. But one thing we know for sure is where we will take them when the time comes.

Thank you, Animal Medical Center of The Lowcountry. And a very special thank you to Mark, Kirsten, Stephanie, Linda, Ashley, Sumor, Renee, Mackenzie, and Rachel. Our dogs’ lives were richer, fuller, and longer because of your love and care, and so were ours.

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