Blessing & Releasing Senior Dogs With Kim Skarritt

Kim Skarritt runs Silver Muzzle Cottage, a nonprofit where senior, disabled, and hospice dogs are reminded how much they're loved before they die. We're talking about the compassion fatigue that often plagues caregivers, how Kim and her volunteers say goodbye to loving dogs over and over and over again, and the legacy that Kim wants to leave on the earth when she dies.

Transcript

Thank you so much for joining me on the show today and I am so excited to have you here.

I have to tell all of my listeners,

I randomly saw a video for Silver Muzzle Cottage on Upworthy while I was scrolling through Instagram one night,

I could not sleep,

And seeing the stories of these senior dogs and seeing the way that they're treated and just ushered into this beautiful care leading up to their death just totally blew my mind and I was so excited.

I was almost jumping up and down in bed again at two in the morning thinking,

Oh my gosh,

This is what I do,

I have to reach out.

And I'm so excited to have you on the show,

Especially because pet loss has been such a theme that's been popping up not only in my private Facebook group,

The Grief Grower's Garden,

But on this podcast as well as it's been going for a little bit over a year now.

So Kim,

First of all,

Welcome to the show and second of all,

Would love to know how you got started doing what you're doing and kind of how you can work with loss,

Especially loss of beings as wholehearted as animals over and over and over again.

Kim Well,

Thank you so much for having me.

It's actually one of my favorite subjects to talk about what I do.

I,

You know,

Like many people out there,

I love my animals.

I love all animals,

But I have this really,

You know,

Just this affinity for the senior older dogs and they just really grabbed my heart.

I was this relatively normal person out there at a relatively normal life.

I was an engineer for one of the big three auto manufacturers and was just super unhappy and not at all fulfilled in what I was doing.

I was following all the societal norms,

Go get a great job.

And you know,

If you could work with one of the great big three,

Great and make a big paycheck and all that.

But oh my goodness,

I was so unhappy.

It just was not my calling.

It was not my passion.

I knew life was just passing me by.

So push came to shove.

I was kind of forced into making a make or break decision.

I took the leap,

Left my job and really wanted to focus on,

Okay,

If I were to follow my passions,

What would it be?

And I knew it would be working with dogs in some capacity.

In the past I'd done training and I'd done grooming and that sort of thing.

So long story short,

I ended up with a facility where I was doing cage re-boarding,

I was doing training,

I was doing grooming.

I had a number of people working for me and on the property that I was leasing,

There was this building that was severely underutilized.

And I thought,

You know,

There's got to be a better way to utilize this to expand the business and add to it.

And about that time I'd been working with local rescues,

Doing some rehab work and really got into social media and linked in with several groups throughout Michigan and kept seeing this pattern more often than I thought it should happen where I would see somebody post about a 14 or 15 year old dog needing a home and it just blew me away.

And I thought,

What is that?

Why does a 14 year old dog need a home?

And you know,

Okay,

That's a fluke.

Someone must have died,

Whatever.

Well then it just kept happening and I thought,

This is a huge issue.

This isn't just a fluke.

It's not a once in a while thing.

This is huge.

So I did my homework.

I hopped on Petfinder,

Typed in my criteria of senior dogs within 500 miles of Traverse City area where we're in the area we're from.

And up came 938 homeless senior dogs within 500 miles.

And I thought,

Holy cow,

This is a problem.

So I thought that's what I need to do with this building.

These dogs are getting euthanized because nobody wants them.

So they've given their lives to somebody.

I need to give them a place to land so they don't die alone in a shelter.

So that's how we started.

There were many things I wasn't,

I was expecting but wasn't prepared for.

And I guess it's a little bit like you think you're ready for a parent to pass or a sibling to pass or a friend to pass,

But you're never really ready until it actually happens.

There's so many things come up that you're not expecting emotionally and otherwise.

And that kind of happened with this.

You know,

We're taking on dogs,

Our criteria is three years or less to live based on their breeds so we're taking in 12 and 13 year old Chihuahuas or five year old Great Danes,

You know,

14 year old Golden Retrievers,

15 year old Cocker Spaniels,

You know,

So the really old sick dogs in hospice cases.

So our goal was to make sure these dogs left the world knowing somebody loved them.

So it's particularly important if the dog has had somewhat of a neglectful life over its lifespan or just someone who had great intentions but it just didn't have a good quality of life.

So our goal is to let them leave this world with a whole different perspective.

But what I found was happening is wow,

These dogs are not lasting very long.

And in some cases really soon,

Like 10 days after we get them,

I think the shortest timeframe was two hours.

We had these dogs two hours and we had to say goodbye.

But it really quickly became an issue just I'm sure very much like with humans.

It was more surviving it over and over and over as I've had to do is really more about the mindset going into it.

So when you get your own pet and it's young,

You I think kind of take for granted.

You say well,

You know,

Mentally you might subconsciously think well,

I'm going to have this dog for a long time and it's part of my family and here we go.

But when you take on a senior dog and you know that they may have two days,

Two weeks,

Two months,

Two years,

You know you're limited.

Basically I make myself very aware of the fact that this dog is here for a limited amount of time and I have a job to do.

And my job is to give this dog a great life for however long it has.

And when it leaves,

Yes there are the tears.

I do not think there's any way to avoid that unless you're just as cold as a stone.

You know we cry when they leave.

That is for our loss.

We are so happy and grateful and we have a little ceremony and we thank the dog for being a part of our lives,

For bringing such great energy into the world and you know making somebody else happy before us.

And then we pass them on and we truly look at that as the final gift that we give to them.

And the tears are for our loss,

Not for theirs.

So that's kind of how we do it.

It helps us each and every time and to just not focus on how sad it is or how bad they had it.

It's just let's give them something great now and go forward from there.

That's so beautiful and I know before we got on the mic today we talked a lot about how Silver Muzzle Cottage is based on a lot of volunteer help.

And I'm kind of wondering how you onboard people and prepare them for the work that they're about to do because it's true that there is this mindset especially even going into hospice or nursing homes or other places where you can volunteer saying I'm volunteering with people I may never see again or in this case dogs I may never see again.

So how do you kind of prepare people especially ones who have never really been that close to death to experience what you experience every single day?

I think it's not anything that I personally do.

The dogs do it actually.

They come to the cottage some want to just look and see and meet the dogs.

Others actually say what can I do to help.

The help is always great because there is a lot to do here.

We are cleaning constantly.

I can't even tell you.

We probably clean the facility three times a day.

Mop and floor sweeping and whatnot.

And I think what happens is they come in,

They fall in love with them because they're just so incredibly sweet.

These dogs don't ask for anything.

They love to sleep.

They love to be petted.

They don't have the high energy playfulness.

They throw a ball and all that stuff.

They just want to be loved on and some of them struggle with mobility issues.

So they're happy if you just sit down on the bed with them and love on them and some of them will get out and take their very slow walks.

And so the volunteers come in and they're able to give that way and I think they're fulfilled in that way.

And then by the time they come back next,

We may have lost one of them.

And while they're sad,

They always seem really happy that they even had a chance to meet the dog.

And they understand what the mission is and they understand where the dog came from.

And so it's really about,

Okay,

Who can I help next?

Now that is not to say.

We have had some volunteers come in.

They'll come and walk a dog or spend time with a dog taking on different adventures in an effort to try and give this dog a really wonderful life.

And they'll spend a lot of time with it and then the dog passes.

And it is very hard for some people and they just break away and we might not see them again or it might be a while before we see them.

But everybody deals with it differently.

And I refer to us quite often,

Volunteers and dogs,

As we are a family.

So we have a private volunteer page on Facebook and primarily we use that space.

So a lot of times I'll give preliminary announcements,

By the way,

So and such and such a dog,

We're going to have their send off ceremony on Friday.

Be there to join us if you can.

And so if they can make it,

Great.

We do have a select group.

They show up each and every time and we surround the dog with lots of positive energy.

Thank them for being a part of our lives.

Thank them for bringing great energy into the world and being of service to others.

And then we send them on their way and open that door for another one to come in.

And so some people understand that and they like being a part of that,

Knowing that they made a difference to this dog.

I'm wondering who designed the send off ceremony and I guess how did you come up with everything that was going to be involved in it?

Because there is a lot of places you can take a dog and the dog gets put down and that's the end of that and there's no like real ritual around it.

And this seems a lot more thoughtful.

I did.

I came up with that.

Our very first hospice dog was a dog named Dusty and Dusty was this,

He looked like a miniature yellow lab.

He was just way smaller than your average yellow lab,

But he looked exactly like one.

His owners had just sent him astray when he was picked up and placed in the shelter,

Some probably via social media.

They've found their owners,

His owners and called and said,

Hey,

We've got your dog here.

And they said,

Yeah,

You know,

We got a new puppy and they're not really getting along so you can keep him.

Well,

Dusty was an intact male.

So they shelter,

Made arrangements for him to be neutered.

And while they,

When they attempted to put him under anesthesia,

They discovered they couldn't get the trach tube in because he had a very large melanoma at the base of his tongue.

And when they tested it,

They determined it was a very aggressive form of oral cancer and they gave him six months to live.

So oddly enough,

That very same day they got his test results back,

They also received our brochure.

So they immediately called us and said,

Can you take this dog in as hospice?

And we said,

Absolutely.

And this dog had the most fascinating life.

He had two or three volunteers a day coming to walk him and taking places.

He went to all of our events and it was fantastic.

Well,

We knew by talking with the vet what some of the symptoms would be before this thing started to progress.

And one of the things is that we do is we never let them suffer.

So if we can send them off on their way prior to suffering,

Then that's what we do.

It was one day of suffering is one day too long.

So just as he started to show symptoms that the disease was really starting to progress,

We said,

Okay,

Let's do this.

And I put a call out to the volunteers and said,

Hey,

I'm going to say goodbye to Dusty on Friday.

Would you like to join me?

And 11 people showed up.

And one lady brought him a lay of daisies to put around his neck and we laid the blankets out.

It was a beautiful day.

We laid him out on the front lawn of the facility under the tree,

Shaded tree.

The vet came and it was one of the most profoundly beautiful experiences.

And I said,

Every one of these dogs deserves this.

So that's kind of what we do from now on.

It was,

You know,

I think you'll appreciate this and your listeners will appreciate this.

As Dusty was given,

It was a two injection process to euthanize him.

As a lot of people may know,

The first one was a sedative to just relax him.

And so he was given the sedative.

And just as the vet was giving him the final injection,

Which usually takes about 10 to 15 seconds before it stops the heart,

I had my face buried in his neck and I was just whispering thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you.

And all of a sudden,

In this perfectly still day,

Not a cloud in the sky,

All of a sudden this big gust of wind came blowing through.

And I heard somebody say,

Did you feel that?

And I thought,

Myself,

I thought,

Oh good,

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

And as soon as it blew through,

It was gone and I looked at the vet and she said,

He's gone.

And I thought,

There he goes.

There he goes.

And every time,

I will say this,

Whether it is legitimate or not,

Every time we have helped a dog crossover,

We've always had this monarch butterfly that would fly into our play yard and fly around all the dogs.

It's on concrete in asphalt,

So it's not like there's grass and flowers there.

But this butterfly would fly in and it would light on the ground and all the dogs would play around it.

Nobody ever bothered it.

And it would flit and flutter around the dog's heads and they just stare at it intently.

But every time we let a dog crossover,

Within two days,

A second one would join that and two would come into the yard.

And so we have this saying that we,

As a dog passes,

We hope we see a butterfly.

So.

It's like you're literally summoning the butterflies.

Yeah,

Yeah.

It's just,

It's needed.

You know,

There could be a whole other bunch of reasons that other people who know butterflies and their habits and whatnot would say,

Ah,

No,

That's not what's happening.

But you know,

Those are the little things that we do that just help bring comfort to whoever wants to believe that,

Whoever feels strongly that the spirit of our animals stay with us.

And I do believe that.

I'm just glad I don't have to clean up after I'm again anymore because that would be way too much for me.

I already have my 15 to 20 I'm cleaning up after,

So.

But yeah,

It's,

You know.

Come back as small or more compact butterflies.

That's right.

That's right.

Come back as doggies.

Stay with me.

Just don't leave your messes behind.

Oh my goodness.

That's so good.

That's too funny.

I'm wondering because working with grief myself,

And I know interviewing so many other folks on the show that work either in end of life,

Death care,

Grief care experiences,

It kind of tends to like soften you up as a person.

You go from hardened clay into like really moldy butter all of a sudden,

Or overtime.

And I'm wondering kind of what lessons both you and your volunteers take from working at Silver Muzzle Cottage into the real world and working with people either in death or death care situations or just in normal everyday interactions.

How does it come into the everyday with humans?

One thing I hear all the time is people hug their dogs more because they,

You come here,

You see these dogs,

Many of whom have been really neglected.

Others came from great homes.

But the other thing it does is it reminds them,

Take care of your loved ones,

Including your four-legged friends because we will take care of our property.

We take care of our money and we make sure that's all,

You know,

Got a new owner after we pass,

But everybody forgets about their pets.

And so it's,

That's another reminder that,

You know,

Many of these,

These pets were left behind and when somebody passed or went into a nursing home and nobody in the family wanted them and they were just never,

It was,

Their care was never arranged for.

So that's another takeaway that some people get.

As far as the grieving process goes,

I will say the folks that tend to stick with us the longest and participate the most really have a very,

Very good perspective on things when it comes to these dogs passing.

The one gal,

Her common mantra,

If you will,

Is bless and release.

Bless them and then let them go.

Let them go out.

Don't harbor the mournful feelings,

You know,

Grieve as you will.

But you know,

They've been blessed.

We've been blessed to have them.

Let them move on and enjoy the afterlife and make room for somebody else so that we can bless and release them.

So we,

We as a family really provide a lot of support to one another and there have been a few dogs,

You know,

I think everybody's partial to one or so that they,

They come into the system and they'll say,

Oh,

I'm just so attached to this dog or I really,

Really love this dog.

And I've done that myself.

You know,

You try not to have favorites,

But every so often one just grabs your heart and doesn't let go.

And so when that dog passes,

It is particularly hard compared to others.

And we're there for each other with that.

So it's,

We have our own little grief support group,

If you will,

And we remind each other that there is the business at hand of rescuing and we can mourn,

But there's a time for that.

There's a time to move on and take on somebody new.

So I don't know that it,

For our animals,

If anybody has taken anything away and been able to translate that to humans,

But we do offer a program called Seniors for Seniors.

So what we do with that is our senior dogs,

We take them once a week to area nursing care facilities and they visit with them,

The residents at that home.

And I think we've seen there also the joy that these dogs bring and we realize they have a purpose.

And again,

It's,

You know,

Understanding the other human side of it as people become seniors and they need the extra care.

They get lonely just like these dogs get lonely.

And they're there.

It's kind of a win-win for everybody.

They're there and they share in each other's love and energy and compassion.

And it's just absolutely a beautiful thing.

And we've got an outstanding group of volunteers that do this every week.

It sounds like you are all keeping yourself so very busy with the work that you do and also just so intensely focused on your mission here.

And I'm fascinated because I have recently found out that there's another podcast in the grief sphere that's specifically for veterinarians and folks who work in animal care fields called the Compassion Fatigue podcast.

And it's about the potential that animal workers especially have to get burned out doing caring for animals because there seems to be so much more of a heart investment because there's an unconditional love involved and so there's less bitterness as opposed to sometimes releasing our more difficult human relationships.

And so I'm wondering what kind of maybe tools or practices that you have in place personally as the person who runs Silver Muzzle Cottage to not get burned out,

To prevent compassion fatigue.

Well,

That's a very good question because I actually just came or I'm coming out of that.

I had a very rough winter.

And part of that was me and bad on me.

I am a very driven person.

It's kind of funny I say typical of me,

I couldn't just rescue a senior dog.

I had to start a rescue.

That is so me.

I know this all too well.

I can't just groom my own dog.

I have to become a groomer and take on other people's dogs.

And I'm a little workaholic.

And so people like me,

It's very difficult.

Saying no is very difficult.

I've become much better at it.

But the thing about rescue and it is it's extremely high burnout.

It's compassion fatigue is huge because yes,

You've got your emotions getting pulled in 12 directions,

You've got and I hate to be a negative nelly,

But you see all of this sadness.

You see the other side,

There's three groups of people that give their pets up.

There are those that would never give them up and they love them right up until the end.

Then there's the group that will give them up and it's the worst thing they've ever had to do and it's the worst sacrifice they'll ever make.

There's a group that has great intentions.

My dog is on her last legs,

Probably isn't going to live much longer.

I need to rehome her.

And I think it has more to do with I can't watch her die.

They won't say that,

But I get that sense.

And then there's the group,

Frankly,

And I'll just put this bluntly,

They should probably never own animals.

They're property.

They don't really care about them.

They're neglected.

They're abused.

They're discarded like garbage.

And so you see all of that.

You see the worst sides of life and sometimes the worst sides of people.

And then on top of that,

You have a million demands on you coming at you from all sides.

Most of the rescue groups out there are all volunteer organizations.

So these people have family,

They have jobs and any amount of time they're donating to the rescue is their own free time.

It's one hour,

Sometimes it's a whole day.

And you get people calling you going,

I have called twice and nobody has bothered to call me back.

And you just kind of go,

Wow,

With the 50 things I have to do,

I am so sorry.

And you end up feeling like you're getting beat up from every side.

You can't save a dog.

You can't help out a shelter.

You end up taking on responsibility and that's how it kind of starts.

You just give of every aspect of yourself,

You give it till there's nothing left and then you go,

Oh my gosh,

I can't function anymore.

What has happened?

Well,

It took me a while to realize what had happened.

Running a rescue is truly a full time job.

There is no way about it.

You can't do it alone.

But for a very long time I was doing it alone.

And I guess I have some volunteers that come in,

But like I said,

I could go a week sometimes and not have any volunteers.

And yet I still have responsibilities of my job and I still have responsibilities to buy family.

I have a father in a nursing home.

My mother passed away in November.

So life goes on for me too.

But in this microwave society that we live in and the MeMeMe generation,

It's all about,

Hey,

I was trying to call you and you are not available.

And so people like me feel huge guilt.

So I've really had to step back and say,

I am one person and I'm sorry you don't understand,

But I am one person and I am doing the very best I know how to do.

And the first priority I have is me.

And if that means I have to say no to a dog,

That means I say no to a dog because if I'm not any good,

Then the dogs will not benefit from anything I can provide them.

So that was kind of a hard lesson learned for me this year.

I am coming out of it.

Sunlight has helped here in Northern Michigan.

Winners are hard here.

They're very long and we are all low on vitamin D.

That's all I can say.

Yes.

And that was brand new to me to find that podcast because I was just looking for other – I'm always on the lookout for other grief casters in the field.

I'm doing podcasting,

But I said compassion fatigue and I said,

Oh,

That exists kind of almost in every industry,

Especially if it's public facing or service related.

But this one was explicitly related to the fields of animal care.

And I was like,

Wow,

That's pretty incredible.

And you're right because if you see too many heartbreaking things all together and fail to take care of yourself and or if you're under this pressure from society to be – there seems to be this myth that like nonprofit work or service work is like a self-reinforcing that you will be nourished by the good that you do.

And granted there is like – granted there is some truth in that,

But there's still – it's still so important to just be able to step away and be separate from that and get out from under the pressure of it at some point.

And yeah,

There's that myth that circulates that like,

Well,

The work that you do is nourishing in and of itself.

And I'm like,

It's still a job.

It's still 80-20.

Like 80 percent of the time it's fantastic.

20 percent of the time I am going to be burnt out,

Man.

So,

Yes.

Yeah,

Exactly.

In fact,

I have really reeled back from social media because I'm on it.

My personal page,

Not as often.

I'll glance through it,

But I'm not heavy into it.

I'm on it primarily because our Silver Muzzle Cottage Facebook page is our main source of networking for the animals and for various topics and that's how a majority of people reach out and make contact with us.

And we give our dogs exposure that way and it works very well.

But you know,

We have over 20,

000 followers,

Which means over 20,

000 opinions and you almost get to hear all of them.

And so,

Even when you are done with the dogs at the end of the day,

People are like,

You know,

I called twice and I haven't heard back from you and I think,

Okay,

I was busy with the dogs all day and 20 calls came in.

So,

Okay,

I'm going to sit down from five to six and I'm going to address the phone calls and I might get through half,

Which means 10 are getting carried over to the next day where I get 20 more calls and now I have 30 calls again.

So,

That is just my phone calls.

That doesn't include my emails,

My Facebook messages.

And so,

I used to stay up until I got 90% of the work accomplished and I would be up till 11 p.

M.

And then I would get up at three or four and I'd start it all over again.

And I just realized I am not doing anything for me.

Somebody said,

Well,

If you had a day off,

Which I didn't take for many years,

What would you do with a day off?

And I looked at him and I said,

I have no idea because it's been so long since I've done that.

I knew then that I was kind of in trouble when I lost sight of me and what was important to me and what the things I like to do that made me who I am and my varying interests and stuff.

I lost all of it.

And I just gave,

Gave,

Gave,

Gave,

Gave until I had really very little left to give,

But I kept plugging away because I had to.

So it made the healing process longer,

But that would be my suggestion to anybody in a caregiving situation,

Whether it be for humans or animals is if you start to just feel that burnout,

That being tired all the time,

The,

Oh,

I don't know if I can do this anymore feeling,

You have to step away and the world will still revolve around you and with or without you,

It's still going to go on.

But I think a lot of us feel the guilt,

You know,

I got to keep doing it.

There's one more dog that needs me and there will always be people demanding your time always.

And so it's up to us to provide self care to the point that benefits us,

I think.

And I lost sight of that.

I got caught up and lost my way a little bit and in the end,

Yes,

Animals are helped,

But it's not going to last long if I'm falling apart.

So I had to really reel it in and get myself together.

And it feels way better.

I appreciate everything more.

I appreciate the animals more.

I appreciate what I'm doing more.

I appreciate the people I work with and the adopters and every aspect of it more when I'm in the right frame of mind.

And so there's just so many things that are important about that.

Self care is just number one.

This might be an interesting question to bring up with you mentioning your retirement,

But what do you want for your own life as you approach death?

Whether anybody else knows it or not,

I want to know that I made a difference.

That's it.

I just want to know that I made a difference.

I don't have to have 100 people at my funeral.

I don't need them to sing special songs or read special verses.

I just want people to say,

Hey,

You know what?

That lady made a difference.

That's it.

That's my only requirement.

Oh,

That's great.

I love that response.

Beyond that,

Yeah,

Beyond that they can do whatever they want.

I'm not going to,

I'll be watching from a distance and won't have control over any of it.

You're like,

Why do I care?

I'll be dead.

I know,

Exactly.

I'll be watching from afar and making fun of myself.

I'm glad that people on the show know that in detail I'd love to die slowly so I can say goodbye and give things away.

I've had people say,

I don't care,

Just dig a hole in the backyard.

So I love asking that question.

Some people think it's a little more important.

That's a great question.

I love that point.

Yeah,

No,

That's a great question.

I hope that it's something that I don't want people to mourn for long periods of time,

Cry,

Be sad,

But then,

Hey,

Life is worth living after that.

Live your own life.

Just remember me from every so often if you adopt a dog or go hug your senior and just say,

That's what Kim would have done.

Yeah.

Oh,

That's perfect.

That's it for me.

I'm wondering,

This is kind of a question that's been popping into my brain the entire time we've been talking.

And I don't know how else to phrase it other than,

Do you think these dogs know what you're doing for them?

Oh,

Absolutely.

I call it gratefulness.

And I can't,

You know,

Nobody will truly know if they're grateful because that is a complex emotion.

We do now know that animals are sentient beings and they've got happy,

Sad,

Angry,

Fearful basics,

But grateful,

That kind of gets a little muddy in the world of research.

I truly feel they're grateful.

I see it.

I see a dog that has had a really horrible life and it's very evident by their physical appearance,

Their overall demeanor.

They've been neglected and I'll tell you,

Here's a great story if we have time here.

We took a dog in named Willow and actually her name was Willa.

The shelter named her Willa.

Beautiful little husky mix.

She'd been found or owner relinquished,

Although the guy turned her in and said,

I found this dog.

They were pretty sure it was the guy's dog.

And they immediately called and said,

You know,

This dog is in rough shape.

That's a shelter code for I don't think this dog is going to live very long.

So we said,

Yes,

Absolutely.

We'll take it.

And the dog came to us and as she was walking around in our yard,

You would call her name and she would look at you and then turn away and walk away.

She had absolutely no interest in people,

Absolutely no interest in other dogs.

She had no idea how humans could benefit her in any way.

And she was also very,

Very sick.

You could see she was emaciated.

Her coat was in bad shape.

We had her vetted right away.

She had multiple,

Multiple,

Multiple things wrong with several major organs being impacted and we could have euthanized her right then and there.

It would have been a real merciful step for her.

But what I said was,

I would like to give this dog until Friday and if we can achieve what we want to achieve by Friday,

We will just let her go regardless.

But in this one week time,

I want us to pull out all the stops for this dog before she leaves this world.

I want her to understand that she is loved.

So I put a call out to all my volunteers and said,

We have this mission.

And so one by one they came and this dog had somebody with her at least 14 hours a day.

Whether they sat with her on her bed and just petted her,

Took her out for potty breaks or took her out for very short walks,

She couldn't walk very far.

And every day,

Every day,

Every day for three days,

Somebody sat with this dog.

And one day there were two volunteers in the room.

One was sitting on the bed with her,

The other one was on the other side of the room and the dog,

And I happened to be there to witness this,

And the dog got up from her bed,

Walked over to the other volunteer and nudged her hand.

And we looked at each other like,

Mission accomplished.

She gets it.

She understands that humans mean love,

Means compassion,

Means gentleness,

And she understood what she could get from humans.

She had a great day that day.

We saw tail wags from her.

She in her own way smiled at us a few times.

And then the next day she crashed and we let her go.

And we said,

You know what?

She got what she needed from this world.

Before she left this world,

We made sure she knew she was loved and we truly felt she was grateful.

She was grateful for the time we gave her.

She was grateful to know that we were with her in the end.

And I see it all the time.

I see it that when the dogs come in,

They sometimes they are healed by the love.

Dogs that we didn't think would last a week end up living two years because they're loved and cared for and they're getting the medical care they need.

But the love is it.

I am convinced that 50% of the cure is just love.

Got chills as you say that because it is the truth.

It's just the ultimate truth.

It's true for dogs.

It's true for cats.

It's true for humans.

I mean,

All of us.

And we hear these stories of people continuing to hold on,

But also these stories of people being able to let go,

But it literally shifts the energy in the room.

And I think that's kind of who you are in the world as an alchemist of pre-death for animals.

Oh,

What a cool role you hold.

Truly.