Goodbye, Suzie

Much sadness, many tears: our beloved dog, Suzie, is dead, aged about eleven and a half (or eighty-odd in dog years). Ever since surgery last year, which gave her a bit less than an extra year of life, she struggled on, gradually her kidney function failing; we took her to the vet – her least favourite place – on Thursday morning to be put on a drip for several days to attempt some detoxification, but when we brought her home on Sunday afternoon she was definitely worse, much worse than when we had visited her at the animal hospital.

Suzie sleeping on the couch with her blankets, 

about two hours before her death.

To-day she was very low, and it was obvious she was in final stage renal failure. I had hoped she might have one last happy day at home; after many hours sitting with her, patting her and weeping as she slept and occasionally stirred – to take a little morsel or a drink, to wander out to the garden one last time, to bark one last time – the vet kindly came on a house call to administer the final injection, just at the time of the evening Angelus. I sat next to her and patted her as she died.

We have the dominion over the animal kingdom; and what a bitter thing it is to wield; and yet, what is that to God's governance of all – what an insupportable burden, but for Omnipotence: thus the Jewish tale, whereby as Moses and the Israelites rejoiced, the Lord wept for the Egyptians he had drowned in the sea. To have the power of life and death is most bitter; how could man dare wield it over his fellow, when over man's best friend we cry so?

Poor Suzie, dear hound! Last week, I had asked my parish priest (a kindly Franciscan, understanding of the bond of love that unites parishioners to their pets) to commend dear Suzie to St Francis, and I certainly asked him, St Roch, St Hubert, St Dominic and Our Lady for their prayers, yes, even for this very humble creature, whose time had come, that she might not suffer in distress and pain, and asked God for this blessing.

Farewell, most faithful dear one! You were always loving. As her body, so her spirit, a sweet and gentle canine soul, has come to the time of dissolution. Animals, unlike men, have no immortal soul; but whatsoever the good Lord brings into being is some reflection of the divine beauty, which abides always. In God all things have their eternal exemplar, their origin and their end.

St Hubert's Hospice

Suzie still recovering from her operation for a benign adenoma of the parathyroid, and now Gracie recuperating from the removal of two lipomas, I have decided that my home has become St Hubert's Hospice for Sick Hounds.  Of your charity, dear reader, pray for all sick animals, particularly my sorry pair!

SS Dominic and Francis, SS Roch and Hubert, pray for them.

Canine Prayer Request

Suzie the dog is having an operation to-morrow, to remove a parathyroid tumour.  As may be imagined, I am nervous about this; but to avoid the risk of the procedure would condemn her soon enough as it would continue to grow.

If readers would pray an Our Father that she live yet longer as a good and faithful pet, I would be very grateful.

SS Dominic and Francis, SS Roch and Hubert, pray for her.

Canine Update

Suzie has returned this after-noon from five days at the veterinary hospital, and is glad to be home (if wagging tail, sniffing nose and delighted running to and fro be thought proof sufficient).  Readers may be left to imagine the expense of tests, care and now special dog food adapted to renal ailments... The prognosis is not yet certain, but there is still hope for some months at least with this dear hound, whose eleventh birthday falls in Christmastide.

Suzannah in pensive mood

Again, if readers will first pray for all the world's great troubles, and then perhaps spare a prayer even for a sick dog (for does not the Lord have an eye even to sparrows? and benignly regard dogs eating up scraps?), I will be well content, and thankful.  There are many evils in the world; we ought give thanks for all the good, also, and preserve it when threatened, be it ever so small.

The Lord's Prayer is the prayer of prayers for all things, from the greatest to the very least, and I don't disdain to pray it for my beloved dog amongst all other intentions comformable to His sweet Will; SS Dominic and Francis, SS Roch and Hubert, intercede for her.

Prayers, please...

Suzie, beloved pet dog, is sick – she is hooked up to an intravenous drip at the veterinary hospital as I write this – and doubtless is quite bewildered and afraid.  We were told by Our Lord to pray for all concerns, and so with confidence in His good will I do ask readers to join in praying for her health, so very important to all whose lives her canine affection brightens.  After all, the Roman Missal includes votive prayers in time of cattle plague, so why not pray for a sick dog, man's faithful friend and true (cf. Tob. xi, 9)?

Being in a Franciscan parish, I was bold to ask my parish priest to pray for this, and he consented (with a twinkle in his eye, be it said, as he recalled a petition praying St Anthony to find a canary which had flown away!).  It seems to me that SS Francis, Roch and Hubert are the saints to invoke, being patrons of animals, dogs and hounds, respectively.  Since St Dominic is famously pictured with a faithful dog, symbolic of the Domini canes, I also ask his intercessions.

St Dominic, pray for her.

St Francis, pray for her.

St Roch, pray for her.

St Hubert, pray for her.

St Francis, pray for Suzie

Crisis!  Having been home this morning looking after one of our dogs, Suzie, who's had an operation and is now looking most wobegone, with big shaved patches displaying ugly looking stitched-up cuts (think "Frankenstein's dog"), I was called away from our fortnightly chant practice to help take her in to see the vet after hours, since there was some bleeding from her wounds.  I don't do blood.  I don't do suffering in dumb animals.  Well, some bandaging later, we've settled her down for the night, and will take her in to the vet again in the morning...

Dear Father was most understanding when my mobile went off in church (!), and suggested, good Franciscan that he was, that we pray St Francis to intercede for Suzie.  I must admit, I would have thought it otherwise somehow inappropriate to pray God for a sick dog, but realize now that that is quite wrong: God made all creatures, "beasts in their thousands on My hills", "all that moves in the field belongs to Me"; and the Missal does after all contain prayers against cattle plague.

St Francis, pray for all God's creatures, particularly Suzie.

Just About Ready!

I'm running around getting a few last minute jobs done... I have to collect Fr Rowe and Matthew, one of the retreatants, at 4.30pm, and before then I have to pack, etc.

Thank goodness for a coffee and two doughnuts! They really recharged me!

I've just obtained a new bookcase (always a good idea) from a secondhand bookshop that's closing: I had paid for it before my holiday, but forgot to pick it up yesterday, and had to squeeze it into my car, with part of it sticking out the front passenger window, which made driving home a bit ticklish. Anyhow, it's done now, Deo gratias.

In some sad news from home, Mum and Dad have had to have their pet cat, Kermit, put down, as his health was very badly impaired and the vet held out no hope. My father hasn't had the best of health for a while, and is getting old, and was very fond of the cat, which they've had for 13 years, so it has been upsetting for him and for Mum. They were burying him this morning. However, they still have their two pet dogs.

I know cats and dogs have no immortal souls, but they are man's companions, which for a time bring us happiness, and to lose one is painful: all things pass away: lacrymae rerum!