How To Prepare For Your Dog’s Journey Across The Rainbow Bridge
Today, I have been a hot mess.
No, really.
My beloved, almost-11-year-old Golden Retriever, Dixie, was diagnosed with bone cancer, and the treatment plan is basically to keep her as pain-free and happy as possible. Our veterinarian is wonderful and humane and doesn’t want to subject Dixie to the trauma that would come with leg amputation and chemotherapy (if she recovered well from the amputation). When you add in the fact that she’d just been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease a few months ago? The loving solution is to do just what he said.
But how hard is that? I’ve had two other dogs die from cancer in the last 10 years. Both retrievers; one Flat-Coated and one Golden, but in both, the cancer diagnoses were fast and their deaths came on suddenly. The ‘decision’ was not even really a decision for either as they were clearly in distress. Our veterinarian believes that we will know when it’s time for our sweet Dixie Belle to cross the bridge as well, guess-timating we’ll have no more than five months at best, most likely one to three, depending on how well she responds to the pain medicine.
Related: Study: Pet Parents Believe All Dogs Go To Heaven
So now, we wait.
Now, I spend wondering when her time will be and what we can do as we wait. It’s not like there’s a handbook titled “What To Do When You’re Expecting Your Dog To Die,” and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of guidance for the waiting. There’s much to look for in your pet–signs to know when it’s time and so on, but not much for me to do to prepare myself and my family as we prepare to let her go. Nothing can make her leaving us any easier, but I think that there are some things every pet parent can do as they wait for that day that will give comfort to hearts on the journey.
1. Love on her shamelessly.
2. Take pictures/videos and make memories.
Related: Memories Of Pets Who Have Crossed The Rainbow Bridge Live On, Online
3. Gather pictures and memories from days past.
4. Crying.
5. Honoring
There’s never, ever a good time to lose your furry family member. But, knowing that we do, and knowing that’s the hardest part about being a pet parent, I am grateful for the time to be able to make her last days the best days we can. Her love for us has been a gift in our lives, and we’ll do our best to return the favor before she joins our other dogs on the other side.

More by Lori Ennis