Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 11 Oct '08, 6.18pm EDT PST.

Happiness with fur
Shining black and smiling tail
We’ll miss you, Bailey

Our Bailey Boy passed away at his home this past Friday. He was a loving member of our family and he will be sorely missed. We had twelve and a half wonderful years with him and he was the best dog we could ever hope for.

Bailey was our first child and we doted on him when he was younger. When we had children he became the older brother to our kids and we could not have asked for a more gentle and caring playmate for them. Our children have known Bailey since birth and their lives have been enriched because of this. Dogs are one of this world’s true miracles. For the simple cost of food, shelter and affection you get a creature who will love you, unconditionally, for its entire life. A soul who is always happy to see you and will never get mad at you, a soul who wants nothing more than to be around you and make you happy. Bailey did all that for us and more, right until the very end.
Friday was Conor’s birthday and started like any other day. Bailey followed Jen around as usual and laid down on Conor’s new Pokemon card game because he wanted to join the game. He went in and out a bunch of times and ate and drank like usual. He was fine until just before 5PM. Jen called me then to let me know that Bailey was suddenly not doing very well. He had just gotten sick from eating grass and we think this caused the mass on his spleen to start bleeding. We have known that our time with Bailey was limited ever since we found out about the tumor last November. We considered surgery for him at the time but because of his age we did not think that surgery was worth it for him since he was still happy and eating and there was a good chance he would not have recovered from it.

Jen called me a second time to let me know that she thought Bailey was really sick and wanted to know if she should tell Maeve. We decided that Maeve needed to say goodbye. By the time I got home Bailey was laying down and Maeve was with him. Jen was trying to handle all of this as well as trying to wrap up an abbreviated 6 year old’s birthday party. She brought Bailey’s soft bed down to the garage and I carried him in and put him on it. Maeve and I sat with him for a while but he was agitated. He struggled to stand up and acted like he wanted to go out. I thought he might be perking up so we let him out and he walked into his back yard and laid down in one of his favorite spots on the grass. He loved his yard and that was where he wanted to be. He did not get up again.
We were getting ready to bring him to the vet when he made his move to the back yard. As soon as he lay down I knew that it was almost time. Jen brought down Conor and Shea and we all sat around him on the lawn. He was barely breathing at this point but when his family sat around him he wagged his tail. It wasn’t much, just two small wags but they were there. He took maybe two or three more breathes and then he was gone. We sat around him then as a family and cried. We also prayed and sang while we petted him for the last time. Jen went and got some paint and paper and we took a paw print from him and a clipping of his fur and then she took the kids inside so that I could take Bailey for his last car ride.

Bailey was a good boy and he went the way we had hoped he would. He played up until the day he died and when he did take a turn for the worse he did not last much more than a couple of hours before going to sleep for the last time. In the end, we did not have to make any hard decisions. He saved us from that.
The one regret we have is that he died on Conor’s birthday. It is a hard thing for a parent to hear their child crying, saying that Bailey died on his birthday, but we can’t change what happened, so this is what we told him;

"Since he was first sick last November every extra day we have had with Bailey has been a gift. We got to watch him open his Christmas presents one more time and that was a gift. We celebrated his birthday in March one more time and that was a gift. Every kiss, lick and snuggle with him have been gifts and the very last gift he gave was to you, Conor, because we got to spend one more day with him on your birthday. So, please don’t be sad, because Bailey would not want his boy to be sad. Bailey would want his boy to wag his tail and be happy on his birthday because he loved you."
We miss you, Bailey, and we will love you always.

Click here for a video of Bailey Boy