The Book of Simon-an excerpt.

Chet and I had to put down our 12 year old pug Simon yesterday. That was a decision I never thought I would make. Chet and my parents had been telling me for awhile that we needed to, but I wanted him to live his nature life. He has been in pain for quite awhile, with less and less use of his hind legs. They would just collapse under him. He could barely lower himself to sit down. The vet thought it was an injury that would heal, but it never did, it got worse. She put him on pain medicine last December, which we were supposed to ween him off of after a couple months. We never did, because without he couldn't move. With it, he moved slowly. The pain got worse and worse. He lost control of his bowels, and recently his bladder. He was miserable. There were many nights I didn't think he would make it through the night. He was having trouble breathing, and would get very stiff. This past weekend, and Monday, he was in bad shape. So I made an appointment, not sure what the vet would say. She was supportive of whichever decision we made. His spine looked much worse than the last time she saw him. She said his pelvis had fused together, which was why he now stood with his legs spread apart, I imagine. Just in case we did put him down yesterday, I took pictures of him and Sophie before we left. I tried to get Toby in there too, but he was uncooperative as usual. Chet met me there. At that point, the doctor had inserted the catheter and brought Simon back to me wrapped in a blanket. He gave me kisses on the nose, which he hasn't done in a long time. I gave him lots of kisses and mommy loves you's. Chet held him, and I left. I didn't want to be there when the drug was administered. I went home and Chet wasn't far behind. Due to circumstance, Sophie was at home with my mom, and one of my friends and her daughter. That worked out well, because she didn't really notice we came home without Simon.