After All These Years You Are Leaving Here

Bright Stars Burning by Hey Marseilles

I feel the lyrics of this song sum up how my day was. Today was my 22nd birthday – I had no big plans with friends or a huge birthday bash scheduled. At the best, I was planning to have a nice meal with my family and call it a day.

I woke up and found my dad staying in the garage, comforting my 13 year old greyhound Fyvie. We’ve rescued her when she was 4 years old while volunteering with Greyhound Adoption Center. Fyvie was found on the side of a highway with both of her front legs broken. Weak, emaciated, and given only a year to live, Animal Control almost put her down on the highway right there. Then Fyvie showed the officer her overbite, which people call her smile. This resulted in the officer calling Greyhound Adoption Center to see if someone could bring her to the kennel. Our family started out as foster parents until it became inevitable that we couldn’t let her go. Money was raised to cover her surgery for her broken legs and she soon took the place of being Daddy’s favorite dog.

She has been slowing down over the past few years. When I saw the tears in my dad’s eyes and the look in Fyvie’s eyes, I knew that the time had come.

Some people would have probably demanded to know why this had to happen on a happy day. Me, I wasn’t even thinking about my birthday – I was thinking about how this affected my family. No one ever wants to have a death occur on a day of celebration but I keep telling myself that Fyvie had lived a good life. Greyhounds have a life span of 12-13 years and she outlived her original prediction of one year. While she may not be with us physically, we have not lost her spirit – it’s still with us.