Saying goodbye to our pets is never easy, but their life span is shorter than ours, so eventually that day comes. It is never easy. Below meet Kiwi with a smile on his face.
Most of us enjoy the companionship of pets, but unfortunately their life span is shorter than ours. There always comes the time when we must say goodbye. Saying Goodbye to our Pets is never easy. Recently, on March 3, 2025, I had to say goodbye to my beloved Australian Shepherd Kiwi.
I don’t really know how old Kiwi was. He came to me as a stray about ten or more years ago. My son was working at a school nearby and Kiwi showed up there as a stray. After no one came to claim him after several days, my son brought him home. He was very traumatized and shy, but for whatever reason he chose me. He voluntarily came into my house and from that day on, he followed me and protected me. I became his sheep. However, he wasn’t too friendly with other people that came into the house and he absolutely refused to get into a car again.
Kiwi and I lived alone for several years, but about five years ago I had another friend, Mark, move in with me. Kiwi was pretty wary of Mark at first, but Mark was a dog lover and was very patient with Kiwi. The picture shows Kiwi tolerating Marks petting but still watching me and ready to bolt. Over time, they became good friends and Mark took him for daily walks on a leash. Kiwi was very aware of that word “Walk” and he would go to the door and patiently wait for the leash to be attached.
However, before they became good friends and even after, Kiwi was very protective of me. Mark had to be cautious if he approached me for any reason to hand me dinner or show me things on his phone. One time Mark got too close and Kiwi backed him across the room taking a nip out of his leg. But Kiwi made his point and we had to abide by his rules.
At night, Kiwi always slept in my room. We had a nightly battle with the bed covers and him making room for me, but he never stayed on the bed overnight. He preferred sleeping on the cool tile in the bathroom. However, if I sneezed or coughed or made any other sound during the night, he was instantly there up on the bed to check that I was okay.
Toward the end, I noticed that he was having difficulty jumping up onto the bed. I started to give him glucosamine, which seemed to help, but may have been the wrong thing in the end. On the night of March 2nd, he tried to jump up on the bed and didn’t make it. Somehow in that jump, he seemed to somehow twist his back. His back legs weren’t working right and his neck and head seemed to be a bit twisted too. He was in terrible pain and we had to call in the vet to put him to sleep.
Saying goodbye to our pets
I know we had to help him with the pain and not let him suffer, but it was so unexpected that it has been so very difficult for me to accept that final goodbye. He took such good care of me. Did I do enough for him? I pray he was happy here and that he had a good life.
He is buried here in his yard close to the shed that he loved to crawl under for a quiet nap. Of course his memory will stay with me probably for the rest of my life. He was a most unusual dog, very pretty, but very shy always with others. I know he loved me as much as I loved him.
Saying Goodbye to Kiwi