The final goodbye

It’s the last appointment of the day at Armory Animal Hospital. We are taken to a peaceful room where Maggie eventually lays on her right side with her head in Cory’s lap and my head laying over her heart with my arms around her chest and belly. She’s already been given a sedation injection to help calm her nerves. Dr. Corey inserts the needle and I start crying. Cory starts crying. We are assured it will be a peaceful transition. I feel her chest rise and fall, rise and fall, and then… fall. I hold her till her last breath and after. With my head still on her no-longer-beating heart I bawl and Dr. Corey whispers, “she’s gone.” It is the saddest moment of my life.