Gizmo's Heart Never Gave Out

Gizmo's heart never gave out but his body did on Friday.   As you know Gizmo has been pretty weak this last year. His systems started to fail and last week he stopped eating.  Gizmo was 19 years old and would have been 20 on St Patricks day.  

Over the past few months his legs started to get weak - which was good because he stopped jumping up on my desk, skittering around and falling off.   We of course are very sad but he had both a sweet life and death.   We had a vigil with him last Thursday night downstairs with the fireplace going.  Zuni (Gizmos sister) joined in - so the family was all there.  Mostly, he just laid there on the floor or the sofa - and when he tried to walk around he would just fall over.  And we had to help him when he wanted to lay down.   What was sweet was that he would just lie on our chest with his head down - something that mostly he never let us do for very long - so it was special for us.
On Friday we just hung around with him.   Once on Friday afternoon after giving him a little wash (he couldnt really clean himself very well) he seemed to have some convulsions of some sort - we thought that was it.  But after a few minutes he started breathing regular again.  We were sort of hoping he would die naturally since our vet was coming over at 345 in the afternoon.   
After that we had the fortunate opportunity to walk with him around the yard and the house one last time.    I carried Gizmo outside and it was raining and a bit cold - but  we still navigated around - I would pick up some of his favorite plants for him to smell.  Then the sun came out and we just stood there together for a while and the sun made his body warm - it was good.   Jacquelyn came out and we took some pictures.   Jacquelyn carried him around the house and we visited every room. 

Around 3PM I just sat on the sofa leaning back and had Gizmo on my chest - It was sweet for both of us and Jacquelyn too.  Our vet came over at 345 and she sat down next to me and gave Gizmo an injection of Sodium Pentathol.
We like our vet very much so it was nice.   We knew it was the right time and in the process Gizmo taught us a lot about ourselves.   We feel blessed.  And like I said - Gizmo's heart never gave up - his body did.   We will be missing him.    But he did tell me before he had to leave to not forget that "blessings will rain".

(reposted here from 2009)