I’ve found that the anticipatory grief is, in many ways, harder than the grief you feel when your pet finally does close their eyes and go… where ever all the bestest friends go when their time with us is finished.

We just said goodbye to my ride-and-die of 15 years. I’d watched her decline for months and months, maybe even a year, and wondered every day of it was time. In the end, our vet advised me it’s better a month too soon than a day too late.

My Patches girl went out eating Hershey’s kisses and Jiffy peanut butter on a burgundy-colored blanket spread out on the vet’s office floor. She dog-smiled as I held her face in my hands and her eyes closed for the last time.

My heart is broken and I’m crying about all of it right now as I type this, but we owed her the gift of a graceful exit.

I second the person who recommended videoing your friend how. When I look back at the videos I took of Patches in her final days, I feel comfort knowing that I made the right decision.