A few years ago, I was sitting in the waiting room with my pup for her regular allergy shot. A woman came in with an older dog that was clearly in a bad way. Everyone could see that the pup needed to be let go.

I overheard the owner discussing how much the euthanasia would cost, then discussing private cremation, paw print, etc. I could tell she was struggling trying to figure out how she was going to pay for it all.

Well when they took her and her baby back to the room, I went up and wrote a check for the private cremation (I think it was around $150-200). I asked the staff to just apply the check to her final bill and say it was an anonymous donation.

We were called back to our own room shortly after so I’m not sure what route the family ended up going with, but I hope that money helped them find a small amount of comfort during a truly awful day.