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It was Friday morning. Darlene and Molly slept peacefully beside one another when the alarm suddenly started beeping. The former turned towards the device and turned it off.
Darlene groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She turned to her wife Molly who looked at the edge of the bed where her dog Rex lay curled up in a ball sleeping.
The German Shepherd had been given to her and her sister Charlotte as a Christmas gift 7 years ago and in that time they had watched Rex grow from a young puppy to an adult with a lot of energy and personality to now an old dog.
All he does most days is sleep, eat, and go outside to use the bathroom. The energy he had in his prime is gone and now has arthritis all through his body, heart problems, and cancer.
The cancer was a recent diagnosis that they had gotten from the vet. Apparently, he had it for months but had gone undetected until now and had progressed to a point where there was nothing they could do.
Molly lost her mother to the same thing and knew what was going to happen. She didn’t want Rex to suffer anymore as he already had decided the best thing to do was put him down. They made the appointment and they planned to do it today.
Her head told her it was the right thing to do, but her heart was having a hard time letting him go. Darlene watched as Molly quickly wiped away the tears and got out of bed, walking to the bathroom to get a shower.
She turned her focus on Rex and threw the covers off of herself and got out of bed. Darlene carefully woke the German Shepherd up. Rex yawned and jumped down off the bed and followed Darlene out of the bedroom to the living room.
Darlene grabbed his leash as he made his way slowly but surely to the door. She hooked the leash on him and the two walked outside. Rex sniffed around before finding the perfect spot to do his business.
Once he finished, she brought him back inside and they walked into the kitchen. Darlene gave Rex his food before turning to Molly and saw she was making them both cereal.
She brought it over to the table, and the two sat down and began eating.
When they were done, Darlene and Molly had Rex once again on the leash as they led him to the car.
Molly got in the first on the passenger side, fastening her seat belt before Rex got in with her. Darlene got on the driver’s side, started the ignition and they were soon on their way to the vet.
Darlene glanced over at her partner and saw Molly crying as Rex had his head in her lap. Molly pet him gently on the head, she just had to remind herself that they weren’t ending his life, but they were ending his pain.
They soon arrived at the vet. Darlene and Molly walked inside with Rex and made their way over to the front desk.
“Can I help you?” The woman behind the counter asked
“Yes, my name is Molly Conner, this is my wife Darlene. We made an appointment to put down our dog Rex.”
The woman typed briefly on the computer, “I see you right here, the 9 o’clock appointment.”
“Yeah.”
“It will be $106 dollars.”
Darlene stepped forward, “I got it, Molly.” She reached into her pocket and grabbed her wallet, handing them the money.
“Follow me.” The two followed the woman into a back room where there was a table and a couple of chairs for people to sit.
Rex was put up on the table and laid down.
“The doctor will be with you shortly…I’m so sorry.”
The woman walked out, looking like she was going to cry as well.
Molly sniffled and cried as she petted Rex, “I love you, Rex…we both do, and what we are doing it's not to be mean…it's because we don’t want you to be in pain…”
Darlene stood nearby, fighting back her tears.
The vet walked in with two syringes in her hand, along with a butterfly needle.
“Hello, you must be Molly, and this is…”
“Darlene, my wife.”
The vet nodded, “Alright how this works I will give him one shot that will make him sleep, and once he is asleep I will give the other shot to stop his heart.”
They both nodded, watching as the vet administered the first shot.
“The shot takes a few minutes to take effect, I’ll be back soon.”
Molly continued to pet him as she watched him slowly get tired. Her tears were pouring as she thought back over the years of all the times she played with him, he followed her around, comforted her when she was feeling sad about something, and slept next to her in bed at night.
He had become so much part of her life that she didn’t know she was going to be, not seeing him every day. Not waking up to see him sleeping on the end of the bed, not having him greet her when she came home from work, not hearing his barks in the evening.
It was going to be strange and she knew it was going to be hard. There was going to be a hole in their lives, a void of not having him around anymore but eventually, the wound would heal, and the love they had for him would always be there.
Darlene walked over to Molly and wrapped her arm around her shoulders, comforting her as she wiped her own tears with her free hand.
She thought back to when she first met him, he was 2-months-old and did not like her at all. That attitude only increased as he grew bigger and louder, irritating her often with how he would growl and sometimes bark at her when she would come around the house.
That only grew worse when she and Molly started dating, he didn't like her being close to Molly, and he especially didn’t like the two kissing. He would bark and growl as loud as he could to get them to stop.
Their relationship didn’t change until that summer when Molly and her family went away to Iowa for Mother’s Day and she took care of him.
After that things gradually changed between them over time. Rex stopped growling and barking at her and was actually happy to see her when she came over, and she no longer felt annoyed at being around and grew to care about the canine.
So much so that when she and Molly graduated from college in 1999 and were going to get a place of their own she wanted him to come and live with them. She and Molly got married in the fall of that year, after 5 years of dating.
Four months had passed and seeing Rex’s health decline so much since then was heartbreaking to her. When she and her siblings were younger they had pets but never a dog and honestly the idea never interested her until Rex came into her life, now she can’t imagine her life without one.
The vet came back into the room, seeing that Rex was now asleep.
“Alright, I’m going to give him the second shot.”
“How long will it take?” Molly asked tearfully
“Less than a minute.”
Darlene and Molly watched as the vet stuck the needle into his vein injecting the substance into his vein and into his bloodstream. They watched, both crying as the woman put on her stethoscope, listening to his heartbeat for a few moments before removing it again.
“Is he…?”
The vet nodded, “He’s gone. Would you like a cardboard coffin to put him in?”
“Yes, we would.” Darlene answered.
When Ty learned they were going to put him down he told them they could bury Rex in the backyard since they couldn’t, living in an apartment building.
“Alright, I’ll be right back with that.” The vet walked out once more, leaving the couple alone.
Darlene wiped away her tears, “We just have to remember Molls, he is out of pain now and isn’t suffering anymore.”
“I know, you're right.” She nodded
Molly stepped closer to Rex’s lifeless form and bent down and kissed him and whispered softly to him.
“Goodbye, Rex.”