Hearts are heavy here at Harmony House. Today I had to make a trip to Tufts U, vet clinic to help my beloved German Shepherd Gerry get to Rainbow Bridge. Gerry may have been a German Shepherd but everyone who knew her knew that to her any small animal was her puppy. She used to get so angry at the ferrets because they would not settle down when she decided it was nap time. We had a close call with her a couple months ago when the local vet placed hie on Rymidal. It caused her to have a stroke. Even thought she was 13 she made a recovery. But last night I knew something was wrong. She followed me into the kitchen but would not eat a treat. When she lay on her bed she kept crying. SHe knew something was wrong and she was coming to me for help. By the morning she couldn't even stand, so I carried her to my vehicle and drove her to Grafton where the Vet collage is. The attendant was wonderful. she came out to my vehicle with a gurney and she took Gerry to a room to prep her. Gerry never cared for vets but she was to weak to fight. When I entered the room she didn't even pick up her head until I sat down next to the table. She struggled to lift her head to place it on my arm. I just sat there holding her head and stroking her. Even though she couldn't hear me I was letting her know how much we loved her. The Senior year vet student came in with the two injections. He told me that I was making the right decision as far as ending Gerry's suffering. I was then suprised when he said "I want to thank you for what your doing". He had seen the papers I had signed declaring that I was going to leave Gerry'd body there where she would be used at the collage for students. The Collage is only allowed to use donated pets and they don't get many so 5 to 10 students have to team up on one animal for their studies. Gerry passed quickly and quietly. She was gone even before the vet had gotten the scope plugs up to his ears. I gave Gerry one last hug before I got up to leave. I'm sure Dino would make sure he would be off duty for Gerry's arrival at the bridge. He most likely had already allerted Casper to gather up Mefur, Smoky and Merlin from the catland, Jack from dogland and asked Sandy and Muldoon to round up Gizmo, Goldrush and Numa to let them know that Mommy Dog was on her way. With a Heavy Heart Here at Harmony House [Posted in FML issue 5154]