In Memoriam__Gaela

If ever there was a Dog in Charge, Gaela was it. We called her Queen of Everything. She feared nothing and acted accordingly, not unusual for a terrier, but she weighed just 9 pounds. For years, she ruled the roost, keeping four other dogs and her two people in line, all the while being the best and most adaptable little dog we've every known.

As sixteen years of living began to seriously wear upon our little Norwich, we had many discussions of quality of life, and of how Gaela was visibly coming to the end of her time with us. And as that time grew painfully close, I spent the days with her sadly watching as she slept the hours away or wandered aimlessly about the office. It was a tearful time. In those last days I wrote:

For Gaela- She has given us a lifetime of love.

'Tis hard to hold the pow'r of life and death,

And harder yet to know when it is time

To free the loved one's energy. A breath

is all there is between the mortal chime

And the immortal toll. The need to cling

Retards my steps, inevitable as

They needs must be, and my emotions swing,

A pendulum of yes and no. She has

No longer quality of life. My head and

Heart must wrestle with the painful choice___

Is this the day? Is there to be a shred

Of pleasure left for her? No sight, no voice,

Unhearing and afraid___no way to live!

The hardest kindness__all that's left to give.


And now she can at last relax and cease her wandering. She is at home with Pippin and Pookie, Eiseley and Sassy___no doubt in charge of all in her new realm.