by Darcy Canu
We adopted Susie-Q from a family that couldn't take care of her anymore. She was energetic and a huge time demand on a man with a heart condition, who also had a wife w/ Parkinson's Disease living at home.
We took her home on a 'trial' basis, but she made herself a part of this family before we knew what hit us. She bonded w/ her Golden 'sister, Hannah Jane, and had a way of 'speaking' to us that always made her wants and needs very clear!
Susie-Q lived with us from age 7 to nearly age 13- she was only a month away from her birthday. She started refusing food, and staring into space, then would 'come back' and seem all right, but one July morning I rose and asked her to go out, but she was unable to rise from the bedroom floor. Before I could even back the car to the door to load her, it was clear from her flailing and inability to focus and breathe that she was dying. I got onto the floor beside her, stroked her side and forehead, and told her to go, that it was all right and she was safe. Off she went, to that spot where they wait for us. We have her ashes, and now those of our Hannah Jane, and they will be spread with mine when the time arrives. To one of my best girls - Mom still loves you so much, and knows you're there waiting!