Animal Hospice in action... now let's give it to humans too!

Animal Hospice is really the best of both - or even all - worlds. Let me explain...

Animal hospice brings all the dignity, respect, time and calmness we compassionately offer to humans when faced with the very last part of life but it also offers us the blessings of humane and peaceful euthanasia at home - meaning a good death - which is what most agree is what our loved ones, furry or not, should have after a good life.

If you are an animal, all that can be achieved without ever leaving your beloved home, full of only your own fluff balls, smells and favourite things - so at that point leaving home then is just for pleasantries such as walks, bird watching and other niceties. Never going to the vets again. Vet practices, much like hospitals, are for curing, fixing, recovering, good and bad stress, happiness, new puppies and kittens, emergencies and all the things that comes with really good clinical hospital care. And for those that have a life ahead of them.

But the last part of life, the end-of-life stage, does not belong in a busy clinic or a hospital when there no longer are any cures or investigations that will change anything because at a certain point life is just slowly dimming or sometimes, fading fast and our home is where we all long to be. Always. Our very own place, our own bed, our own people (or no people even - certainly not nurses and doctors poking you about) and just our own space and time. Control and dignity exists at home and very little control exists in a clinic or a hospital.

In animal hospice, together we have the time, the tools and all the knowledge made available to us to care best for our loved ones with fur when they are faced with the inevitable and this is really what life is - and should be - all about. We certainly cannot easily explain to our pets why they need to be away from us. When they are preparing to die. Some prepare longer than others - some for just days or weeks but the hardy ones (and we all know them, right great grandma?) can be "dying" for years! Even after a diagnosis of a devastating terminal disease.

Even if we all prefer to not think about it, it actually is much better if we do and did, and we need to think over and over and so almost trivialise this thought in order to finally make peace with the indisputable facts of life - the facts of death - and that we would not have life if it wasn't because of death. Or paid for with death.
This binary is the ultimate yin/yang of life. We would not have mountains if we didn't have valleys. We would not appreciate our nights if we did not have days, the sunshine and the rain, the chocolate and the broccoli - well you get my drift.

By having - or rather - by giving a good death in case of animal hospice and home euthanasia, this beautiful and inevitable life event - paves the way for remembering only the many happy memories of what these treasured creatures bring to our lives - the joy, the wags, the kisses, the purrs, the cuddles, the companionship, the listening without talking back and all that good stuff - and this is probably why most of us choose to invite them into our lives. Time after time after time.

We know when we invite them into our homes, our beds, our hearts that they are here much shorter than us. They go through their cycles of life with such haste that it reminds us sometimes just how mortal we are ourselves, seeing all seasons of life; spring, summer, autumn and winter come to our beloved pet over the course of 5, 8, 12 or 15 years even - well sadly for most. And our children have barely reached their late teenage years in that same time frame.
Yet we know all that joy, love and company is so worth the "pain" at the end but that pain must be only ours and ours alone - and the suffering too - for us to bear while we learn to live with, knowing they were not.

This is possible thanks to the blessings of the ultimate comfort care; animal hospice and with the gift of having the choice of euthanasia when comfort is no longer possible. If anything THAT is a true gift of a "God" and no respectful religion should speak against this if it has any decency and meaning at all to the betterment of our lives.

Well it is very much in that spirit, we have asked Liz to share her loving story of Millie, her Yorkshire Terrier through 15 years of devoted life together, and mixed with several new addresses and other animals, and why never having to take Millie to a vet practice during her last 18 months of life and having such a peaceful end, is what life should be all about - after a certain point when no cure is meant to be found. The cycle of life completes, as intended, mixed with compassionate humanity, medical science and all that we have learned through history.

In Millie's case this was her natural journey with only gentle support and minimal medical intervention to her system to make sure her last season also was a most peaceful, pain - and stress free one. Also for her human family.

Animal hospice and home euthanasia is here to stay.  How about we show some real compassion, stand up for giving this to humans too - it's been "tested" long enough on our furry family members...

Millie

Watch her story here....
Millies last season...Animal hospice in action