She had been drinking a lot of water, feeling lethargic, and not eating. We brought her to our family vet (and by that I mean Kerrie's incredibly generous cousin Kenneth who has his very own animal hospital; and it's not made out of Legos).
She was diagnosed with diabetes, but also had some other elevated levels related to her liver which turned out to be cancerous. Her health deteriorated quickly and in a matter of days we had to make the very difficult, but very correct, decision to say goodbye.
Our three children reacted three different ways:
- Molloy still thinks Lila will be coming home, even though she had "died". She kept asking me if she could "see her die", but I think she meant she wanted to see her even though she was "dead". I feel she understands being dead to be just something else you can be while you are alive. It is an interesting event to occur on the heals of her recent obsession with dieing.
- Daniel is already trying to determine which new kind of pet we will get.
- Lev took some mementos of Lila and placed them up on a shelf in rememberance.
In a sense, all three reactions when combined seemed appropriate.
We are all certainly sad to see her go, but I'll spare the sentiments because this blog is about the kids.
Lila, party animal at the 2008 Rubecue
