Ladywolf Is Failing, How do you make THE decision? Options

[ladywolf]

No, this is not a new topic, but it's a new phase of the process, and I thought I would start a new thread about Ladywolf and me. (See "How to Savor the Time with a Dying Pet.)

All of her legs are giving out on her now, and I may have just taken her for her last woodsy ramble. She simply can't keep up even on a very short walk anymore--she lies down to rest, and today I had to leave my friend with her and walk back to get the car, which I then had to navigate over a very rough stretch of mountain dirt road--but not very far, because we simply hadn't gotten very far before Lady called it quits.

Just now, she fell going up a friend's three or four stairs. I can't lift her--she weighs almost as much as I do--though I can help her to stabilize when trying to get in and out of the car, for example, or climbing that short staircase. She's a real trooper, but it's obvious that she's in a lot of pain from the cancer now. However, when she's lying around, she's still very perky and fresh and alert, and her appetite for home cookin' continues to be great. Lying down or sitting up, she seems like the same old Wolf. It's just when she tries to get to her feet...

I'm not really writing just yet to pose the question in my title, because I can't handle talking about it today. I could just use some more support, because obviously we can't continue like this indefinitely--something will have to be done, at some point...

I feel oddly unemotional about it all today, but god knows I have been having lots of those moments over the course of these past few months, since the cancer was diagnosed. She's fourteen or fifteen, and the most magnificent creature you've ever seen--about 80 or 90% pure Alaskan Grey Timberwolf. She is the most intelligent, sensitive, loving, funny, intuitive creature I have ever had the incredible grace to have in my life. I'm trying to remember that.

I don't have the money right now to choose to have her euthanized, I really don't. But a wealthy friend who's paid some of her other bills might pay for it for me, since it would be the last time I asked her for help.

I gotta' stop writing about it right now. I could just use some more support.

Thanks, everyone.

Big Hugs--Margi and Ladywolf