A bittersweet day with Molly

Sunday, December 16th, 2007 was a day I will never forget. It was my last day with Molly, my 11-year-old golden retriever who was losing her battle with the nasty cancer taking over her mouth. She fought a valiant fight that lasted almost 2 years, but when the cancer began to affect her quality of life, I knew it was time for me to let her go.

Molly was the first dog I had ever taken geocaching. She accompanied me to all the caches I found at Lake Natoma in the Willow Creek area. Molly always enjoyed hiking and swimming at the lake, so when I began geocaching, I'd take her out to the lake to hike, swim and geocache. It was the perfect fit!

I knew the last thing I wanted was to let her swim for one last time at her favorite place, Willow Creek. There were no plans to take her geocaching that day, but when I turned my GPS on, there was a new geocache called, "Where the Red Fern Grows" (GC17X2E) that had been hidden in the area the week before. According to my GPS, it was hidden just .15 miles from the parking area, I knew Molly had the strength to make the hike to the cache since it was so close. How ironic that the cache name was the same as a movie that was about a boy and his dogs.

It was a fitting tribute to her for us to do this together. The short hike to the cache area was beautiful. It was turning green from the recent rains and there was a little creek running nearby. After 15-20 minutes of searching, I was about to give up feeling dejected that I couldn't find it. More than that, I was disappointed in myself that I couldn't find it for Molly. I tried looking again, and finally found it! Phew! It was then that I realized this would be the last time I would ever hike or find a geocache with Molly. She seemed so happy, her tail was wagging, and she was smiling. For a brief moment, I almost had second thoughts about letting her go, maybe it was too early. But I knew it was what I needed to do, for her. I'm not sure how long we sat together on a log by the creek, but I hugged and cradled her and told her how much I loved her, our own private goodbye, just the two of us. We took the short hike back to the water where she swam for one last time chasing her stick. We then made the short drive to the vet...I held her and told her how much I loved her as she took her last breath.

It's been a little over a week since that day and I still can't believe how empty I feel without her around any longer. I do feel good about how wonderful our last day together was.