Saying goodbye to Edy // Baraboo photographer

I was at an appointment at a client’s home last week, and just as I was getting ready to leave they told me they were taking their sweet girl Edy to the vet to be put to sleep. She had suffered from health problems for some time, been to multiple vets and on a string of medications to no relief, and it was time.

They had less than half an hour before she was scheduled to see the vet, but I offered to run home to get my camera and get a few portraits of Edy in their brief time left with her.

I’m not a pet photographer. But I am a family photographer, and I understand that pets can deeply and truly be part of our family stories. Edy had been with her family since she was nine weeks old, and I could see how painful it was for them to say good-bye.

There was something particularly sad about all of us knowing her fate while she sat blissfully unaware. But I have lost a pet unexpectedly, and I could see the gift in being able to say good-bye. And thank you. And to send her on her way with all the love you have to give.

And, I think, it’s a gift to be able to remember her this way: Sitting still to accept a crouched embrace, relaxing in the grass on a warm fall day, smiling out the car window on her final trip.