Animals Are Like People

When Lolabelle got very sick we took her to the hospital.

We spent a lot of time with vets.

And they always wanted to give you this speech they'd prepared, about pain.

Which was, "Of course you don't want her to be in pain.

And so, we just give her a shot and put her to sleep,

and then another shot and she stops breathing."

And every time they'd say that I would say

"Listen, I know you want to say this,

but we're not going to do this, so, never mind."

But they would still try to give the speech anyway.

I was really worried about this.

So I called our Buddhist teacher and he said

"Animals are like people.

They approach death, and then they back away.

And it's a process.

And you don't have the right to take that from them."

He said "You should just go and get her from the hospital and bring her home."

Pretty much exactly what your Jewish grandmother would say

"Get some good tranquillizers and get some good food and bring her home. Haha."

So we went to the hospital and we took Lolabelle home.

We stayed with her for three days,

as her breath slowed and then stopped.

We had learned to love Lola, as she loved us.

With a tenderness we didn't know we had.