My Final Hours
by
Eddie
I slip out of my slumber at about 4:00 am. I lie in the darkness for a bit, gathering my wits, figuring out just where I am. It slowly comes to me, I’m in my cozy bed, next to brother Dante’s similar bed, in my humans’ sleeping room. It’s dark and silent, but I need to get up…nature is calling. I struggle to rise to my paws, all my joints complaining with each movement. I slowly, painfully walk to my man-human’s side of their bed and grunt and groan to get his attention. He wakes, and gets out of bed, moving his mouth, but I don’t hear his words. He and my lady-human stopped making sounds with their mouths around two years ago, I don’t understand why, though. It started the same time when all of the sounds in our home began to fade.
He leads me through the house to the eating room, to the doorway to the outside. He reaches to that spot on the wall that makes the room bright so I can see better. (My vision is fading as well, but still better than my hearing.) He slides open the door to the yard, where I used to run and play, chasing squirrels and rabbits, but now I only go out to go potty. I almost always make it outside, but sometimes I can’t get up quickly enough, and I potty inside. It’s embarrassing, and I know my humans don’t like it, but this old body just doesn’t cooperate like it once did. My man-human gives me a nudge to help me out the door, I often need some help braving the two steps to the outside.
I go out to the grassy yard, take care of my business, and then slowly and stiffly walk back to the door where the human is waiting patiently. At the step I gather my courage and climb back indoors. This is a challenge for me, with my hind legs barely able to push me up the steps, I often fall over while doing this now. The human leads me through the house to the sleeping room, pausing as I stop for a drink of water. I slowly make my way back to my bed, and lie down for some more sleep.
Some time later, I awake again, this time to find the sleeping room in daylight. I see Dante stretching and yawning in the next bed. Time to get up. My older brother and I head to the eating room to find our man-human there, having his morning drink. He sees us come in and he opens the door to the outside one more time for us to go out. Dante may be two years older than I am, but he seems to get around with significantly less discomfort. I’m barely out in the yard, when I see he has already finished his morning business and is at the door ready to go in. I follow suit, and am at the door as the human opens it. This time I’m not so lucky, and I fall as I try to mount the steps. I see the human moving his mouth, but again, I hear nothing. I struggle to get back on my paws, and I stare at the steps a moment before I try again. Thankfully I make it in without further incident.
By now the lady-human has risen too, and I see her preparing to go out for her morning walk. I’m reminded of the times when she would take me with her, and on some special days, we’d walk across the busy road to Franzen Nature area. The bestest days were when there were no other humans there, and she’d let me off the leash. I’d run free, leaping like a gazelle (in my mind, anyway) through the tall grass. There were ducks on a pond, rabbits, and even donkeys across the fence! Ah, but those days are long gone now, I haven’t the energy to even walk around the block.
The man-human fills both of our food bowls, I sniff at it, and go back to the door to wait with Dante for the lady-human to return from her walk. I’ll have all day to nibble at my food. The lady-human eventually returns, so I then take my own walk from the front door to the eating room and nibble a bit of the food the man-human set out for me. My humans eat their own breakfasts now, and are moving their mouths, appearing sad about something, but I don’t hear what they say.
They finish the meal, and clean up after. Lady-human walks to the front door, grabbing my collar and leash. She looks at me, moving her mouth. I can’t hear her, but I know the leash means I’m going for a walk! I know I can’t go far, but I eagerly (if slowly) hobble my way to her. The three of us walk out to the wheeled metal box that magically takes us places. I approach it, but I”m incapable of jumping up into it anymore so I sit down next to it. My man-human scoops me up and sets me in the back seat of the box. The two of them get in the box ahead of me, and we start to move. The glass next to me rolls down, and I hang my snout out in the fresh air and close my eyes. After a few too-short minutes, we slow and turn up a little hill, and the box stops.
My humans get out, and open my door so I can get out. I barely avoid falling again, and we walk a short distance to the door of a familiar building. It smells like this place has had many dogs visit. Lady-human goes up to a counter while man-human sits and gives me pets and scratches. We are soon led down a hall to a room that smells too clean. Another two humans come into the room through another door. They talk to my humans for a couple of minutes, and walk out for a moment. They soon return, and they both get down on the floor, and give me hugs. Oh, not hugs, holding me so one of them can poke me with a needle.
They get up and walk out, moving their mouths silently. I suddenly feel like taking a nap, which is how I spend most of my days now. I lie down, close my eyes and start to dream. I’m running off-leash at Franzen, just like I did years ago. Leaping, chasing…and now being chased. A rabbit runs up from behind and bites me on a hind leg. I feel a sting. Suddenly everything starts to fade to darkness. I struggle to wake, but soon all is dark. All except a pinpoint of bright white light. I walk towards the light. As I approach the light I see it’s not white, but all colors of the spectrum. I get closer and I see it’s not just a light, it’s a bridge. A rainbow bridge.
For the first time in a long long time, I wagged my tail.
The Rainbow Bridge.
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