RIP Georgie girl 7/18/2013-9/19/2024

I woke up for work today and my best friend was laying on the floor dead. She acted like her usual happy self yesterday but I noticed her coughing and making some weird noises when we went to bed. They weren’t constant and they stopped so I figured if she was acting weird in the morning I would take her to the vet. She started whining in the middle of the night but I was half asleep and wasn’t sure if I was dreaming. I woke up at 3:30 and she was already stiff, laying in the same pose she did most mornings when I got up for work. I touched her and she didn’t move, then noticed her eyes and mouth was open. I just got back with her ashes and I feel like a part of my heart and soul are missing. She was my best friend for the past seven years and wasn’t even my dog initially. She was my ex’s dog and almost immediately she decided I was her person. She used to sit at the door when I left her house and look at me as if to say “where are you going man? I like you”. My ex and I broke up two and a half years ago and she told me I needed her more than she did and that she chose me to be her person. She was my angel and I can say with absolute certainty that she saved me. I’ve struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts almost my whole life and there were times where she was the only thing stopping me from going through with it. I wasn’t well, but I knew that if I died people would at least understand that I was gone. She wouldn’t. She would wait every day for the rest of her life for me to return. She brought me so much happiness and brought me out of the worst period of my life after my ex and I separated. She gave me a reason to get up every day, a reason to find a good job and better myself so I could give her the best life possible. Over the past year she had cancer, a hematoma, and had eaten an entire bottle of Carprovet. Each time I did whatever I could to make sure she got better. I spent roughly $6,000 on her health in the span of a few months despite my low pay from my restaurant job at the time, and each time she pulled through. I took her for walks regularly and her mobility issues associated with her hips/ACL diminished to the point where a 2 mile walk didn’t cause her to limp whatsoever. I did everything I could for her, and also with her. My days off were spent taking her for rides (she was so smart that she would get excited even if you spelled the word) and walks on trails in my area. I keep feeling that I could have done something, that I could have taken her to the emergency vet when I noticed her coughing or woke up all the way when I heard her whining I would have spent whatever was necessary to save her but I don’t know that I even could have. My family and friends keep telling me that it was just her time, that she died peacefully and didn’t suffer. I’m hard on myself but I have to believe that. If it was up to her, she would be here with me still. My life will never be the same without her, and I don’t know how long the recovery process will be. I think it will be years because she was truly my soulmate and I can never replace her. I don’t think I can ever get another dog. I’ll miss you Georgie, and I will never forget you