Bianca was our beautiful and sweet black lab who had the biggest, saddest brown eyes. We were fortunate to have been blessed with sharing our lives with her for 8 years.
Earlier this year she began to get sick. We took her to the vet not expecting too much to be wrong, but sadly we found out she had heart worms. Unfortunately, by the time she showed any symptoms she was in heart failure and had fluid around her heart and in her liver. Over the next month we tried everything in our power to get her better. It was an emotional roller coaster.
First she would appear to be responding well, and then she would get much worse. We tried to fill her days with as much love as we could and tried to be optimistic. We kept telling the vet that when it got to be too much and it wasn’t helping her, to please let us know, we didn’t want to make her suffer.
We told Bianca all the time that we loved her and wanted her to stay with us, to please get better. But we also told her to let us know when she was ready to go.
Then, after so many sleepless nights and days of crying, she let us know. We woke up to discover she had gotten sick and was too weak to move herself. We cleaned her up and Lisa went to work, but as she walked out the door Bianca just stared right at her with pleading eyes, as if she were trying to say goodbye.
Lisa came back and held her for a few minutes and left. Just a bit later she had gotten sick again and couldn’t move out of it. I sat in the floor holding her and crying and telling her that I loved her. The whole time she would look me straight in the eyes, and I fully believe she was telling me it was time to let her go.
We called the vet and took her in, and he confirmed what we already knew in our hearts. She was no longer responding and was getting weaker. We made the decision that day to put her to sleep and let her go to doggie heaven. It was the hardest day of our lives. The three of us stayed with her the whole time, holding her and telling her how much we loved her and would miss her. We stayed with her as the doctor gave her the shot. I held her in my arms, Lisa had her head in her lap, and Blake was petting her. As the shot went in,I felt her leave us.
My beautiful Bianca was gone, and so was a chunk of my heart. It was so hard to leave her there, but I am so thankful that we got to be with her in her last moments. She spent her last minutes of life surrounded by those that loved her, and being told what a wonderful pet she was and how much she was going to be missed.
I cannot express how fortunate and blessed we feel to have gotten that opportunity to tell her good bye and send her off on wings of love.
We will always miss her. I still cry often. We had her cremated and have her ashes with her picture in our living room. We saved her stuffed kitty and put it there with her.
She will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.
She was truly a wonderful pet.