It is with very sad hearts that we share the news ACDR lost one of our own yesterday. Our palliative care foster, Buster, aka Bean. He was loved beyond measure by his mom, Paula. He has left a deep void and touched many hearts during his time with us. Please hug your babies a bit tighter today and think of his foster mom, Paula. Here are her own words…

My little Buster ButterBean has left on the next stage of his journey. All the many, many things that were wrong with him tipped him over the edge yesterday morning, and I made the hard decision at lunch. This was a hard one…he still had so much spirit in him! But his little body had just given up and I couldn’t let him continue in such pain, no matter that he was prepared to do that. I just couldn’t fix it, which is killing me. God knows we tried. I’ve only ever met two other dogs with such a strong survival instinct in my life, my second dachsie, Alex, and my Ferk. Both were with me for a long long time; I only got 6 months with Bean. It was only in the last few weeks that he’d finally come to trust me, to cuddle into my lap, to look for me. Six months almost to the day he was here…just not enough time together, to give him the chance to have the life he should have had, that was stolen from him. The house is very empty this morning…. I want to say a HUGE thank you to Dr. Jess McCarron of Burnside Vet for her care of Bean, and of all my dogs, and for making the crossing peaceful and easy for him. And of course, all my ACDR friends for everything. ❤

When you take on a palliative foster, you know going in what the journey is going to be, and how it’s going to end. You know…oh, you know, having been through it so many times before…the heartache that is lurking when you wake up every morning, having gone to bed grateful for one more day. But knowing is a faint shadow of the reality when it hits. It’s a grief that those of us who choose this road take on ourselves gratefully if it allows these poor, neglected, abused little souls to have any space of time, whether hours or months, where they are safe, and loved, and healed as much as one can. It is just never enough time. If love could fix things, my Bean would be sleeping in the bed behind me still. Godspeed, my dear sweet little man. Not gone, just gone ahead until I get there.