Good-Bye, Sweet Jocie

Jocie had advanced kidney failure, an enlarged spleen, and apparently her spine was pretty messed up. Dr. Ellis said she probably wouldn't have lived another week, so today we had to say good-bye.

Justin and Zach met me at Animal Care Clinic at lunch to say good-bye to her, and I think it was much more difficult than any of us had anticipated. She looked....normal. She waddled into the room with that goofy grin on her face, just eager to go home. As soon as we saw her, Justin and I just started bawling. How could I possibly have her put down when she looked so happy?!?

As it turned out, Dr. Ellis was out of the office until 3:00, so Justin and Zach merely said good-bye to the Jocie they had always known, which was actually much, much harder to do than saying good-bye to Lexie, who was obviously suffering. However, when I went back to the vet after work to be with her when she was euthanized, she was drugged, which actually helped a lot.

I'll spare you all the sad details, but I wanted to mention that Jocie passed while sticking out her tongue, which seemed highly appropriate and made me quite happy.

I'm not doing well at the moment, but I'm sure eventually I'll improve. Right now, though, I'm avoiding packing because I do not even want to go on this vacation. Not only is it the worst possible time for me to be away from my girls, but I was also slapped with an expected bill at the mechanic's today for $430 because my car wouldn't pass state inspection without new tires, plus a few other things I had been neglecting.

So, yeah. Not an awesome day. I'm feeling pretty broken right now, to be perfectly honest.