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Liesbet: In Memoriam

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Liesbet
Born: ?                  Arrived: 2 December 1999               Died: 5 January 2013

When I wrote about her on the blog in November 2011 in Liesbet, I was already writing about this. But on the day, it remains difficult writing about this.

She left the way she came – in a soft drizzle.

Somehow it is a deep comfort to me. That was apparently her cue to enter and leave the stage of my life.

For the last few days I knew the inevitable had to be done. With great difficulty she tried to follow me wherever I went, she ate her food lying down, she was just the image of frailty and age. By yesterday afternoon I realised it could no longer be postponed.

The spot that I chose for her grave is under one of the big plane trees at the back of my house. It is cool and shady there. It also provided some shelter from the rain this morning as I dug the grave and made preparations for the burial. I wanted everything to be ready so that it wasn't necessary for her to wait on our return with her from the vet.

It helped – the gentle way the vet put her to sleep, the manner in which she just silently slipped from this stage of my life.

She didn’t have any pedigree; I am not sure where and when she was born. To a lot of people she wasn’t much to look at. But she was my friend and companion. My life was richer because she was in it.

For that I thank her.

If there is a heaven, it’s certain our animals are to be there. Their lives become so interwoven with our own, it would take more than an archangel to disentangle them.    
                                                     Pam Brown                                                                                                                                                                                              




George


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