Today I had to go through one of the most difficult and painful experiences in my life. Over the past year the health of my beloved dog Izzy had been steadily declining. Her joints had gotten stiff to the point where she could no longer climb the stairs in my parents' home. Both her hearing and her sight were beginning to fail. She could no longer hold her bladder and was beginning to have incontinence issues. Despite our best efforts to make her comfortable it was clear that she was nearing the end of her life and rather then have her suffer any further my family made the decision to have her euthanized today.

It was one of the most heartwrenching and difficult decisions any of us had ever made. One which left me with a number of regrets: namely that due to personal reasons I was not able to care for her during her later years after moving away from my parents' home, and that they did not have the resources necessary to continue caring for her in my stead.

Despite the painful nature of her passing though she lived a full, happy life and was very well loved by us all. She was, without exaggeration, the best dog and the best pet I ever owned and even if I chose to take in another dog in the future no animal or person will ever replace her.

Good bye. Izzy. You were a very good girl. Thank you for being my best non-human friend through much of my young adult life.