You belong among the wildflowers

We had to let Reno go yesterday. It was so hard. He was the greatest dog, so kind, loving and sweet. He was a Newfi / retriever and all he wanted to do was sit next to me and have me hold his paw. I had to do that for the last time yesterday. He had stage 3 liver cancer, kidney disease and pancreatitis. Both Brad and I held his paws as we said our goodbyes. We played his song which is Tom Petty's Wildflowers. We chose that song because he loved to run through them. When we left him, we got on the freeway and I said to Brad "I wish he could give us a sign that he made it over the bridge and found Abby (another of our dogs who had to leave us 2 years ago on Christmas Eve) right after I said that, Brad turns on the radio and sure enough that song starts to play. We both cried like babies. It was a sign from Reno that he made it.

It's so hard for us because our dogs are our kids. We now have Wiley and Macy left. They are missing him as much as we are. I found Macy this morning using the towel we took with us yesterday as a pillow. He was her soul mate. He is going to be so missed. How do you say goodbye to a family member? When he left yesterday, another piece of my heart went with him.

I love you Reno. Thank you for choosing us to be your family. The last 11 years with you were wonderful, funny, happy, and now sad. Goodbye boy.

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
Sail away, kill off the hours
You belong somewhere you feel free