Working at the vet clinic brings a new experience, a new thought and a new realization every single day, I walked into the clinic mentally preparing myself for everything understanding that everything I did was for the pet and nothing else. I walked into the clinic knowing that I would see both the thinkable and unthinkable. Yes, we see it all at the clinic; from the not so devoted to the utterly devoted parents, pets with curable diseases while others with the incurable. Therefore it is quite natural to assume that death is to be expected but is anyone ever ready for it?
A pup who quite literally had shaken hands with Yama(God Of Death) decided for some reason to come back to the world of the living with nothing more than a broken back, at first I wondered how she survived and it always gave me the chills to help with the pup who survived. Though shaken by the incident I was then sure that I could handle whatever that came along my way. But it was not death I saw but merely near death, I was yet to see death… I wondered whether I would.
Today, it happened. Queenie, an old but wonderful dog came to get an existing problem treated. Appointments were fixed for the next step and plans were made for helping her but alas before anything could be done she decided to move along. My mother who happened to be there at the clinic instantly burst into tears while my heart bled for Queenie’s mother. Queenie was placed on the table and I stood next to her confused as to why her chest was not moving or her head turning, I touched her and realized how quickly she had gotten cold. Watching Queenie’s mom weep hysterically over her baby made me wonder what she was thinking, we all regret or blame when we’ve lost someone we love, I am guessing it is a mechanism meant to make us recover quickly, did she sob about not telling her darling how much she loved her? Did she regret reprimanding her or was she probably blaming the situation? Did she forget to reassure Queenie that the vet visits were for her own good?
So did you tell your sick loved one how much you love and care for them? Did you tell them that you needed and loved them no matter how terrible you were to them? Did you hug them for loving you? We all want to but something always stops us and then it’s too late, in the end we all want our loved ones to know how much we love them and let them reciprocate the same. Maybe I should tell my darling the same right this instant.
I always make sure to kiss, cuddle and mollycoddle my kids before and after work but as I reached home I made a mental note to give them a double dosage of love. Our culture has 3 men in charge of the cycle of life, Brahma in charge of birth, Vishnu in charge of living and Shiva in charge of death. When I looked at Queenie one last time, I pondered whether Shiva was scanning through a checklist, scratching out her name and then handing Brahma a file with her name on it. Filled with a sense of hope I wished her the best of luck and let my colleague wrap her up.
Clap