Welcome to the final chapter in This One Wild Life’s series on adopting senior dogs. In Part 1, Georgia, a senior mixed-breed displaced by Hurricane Katrina, travels through the shelter system and survives a grueling Heartworm treatment. In Part 2, Georgia finds a year-long trial home but is returned due to severe separation anxiety. In Part 3, Georgia finally has a foster mother who works on her anxiety issues. In Part 4, Georgia finds a loving forever home with the King family. And now, for the rest of the story…

GEORGIA FINDS ETERNAL PEACE

After such uplifting and happy updates from the King family for months, Barb King wrote the following letter to Tim Clune (formerly of AnimaLovers.org) on May 18, 2010:

Dear Tim,

I am sad to tell you that we had to put our sweet friend Georgia down late yesterday afternoon. She had been having difficulties and stopped eating, so we put her in the hospital for 3 days on IV fluids and antibiotics and then took her home. She continued to decline even as we tried several medications. It became clear that she was not going to recover. …

Mike, Rachel, Jason and I all sat with her in the backyard for quite some time yesterday afternoon, just petting her and talking to her, and then Mike and I took her to the vet. Our Dr. Chico is a very compassionate and gentle man and she was made as comfortable as possible. She went easily and quickly with Mike and I sitting on the floor with her, talking to her and petting her the whole time.

We had her exactly 8 months to the day. God gave us a great gift in her – our son Jason was thrilled to have her and loved her immensely, as did the rest of us.

I would encourage you to still publish the story I wrote for [the 2010.07 AnimaLovers Companion (PDF)] if you want, so that people will see what a wonderful companion they can get if they will consider an older dog who really needs a home. Rest assured, Georgia was well loved and taken care of these last 8 months – she was a treasure to us all.

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