The Gift of the Flat Tire

I want to thank all of you who took the time the other day to post such caring, compassionate, responses to Bonnie's death. It helped Doug and me very much to know that Bonnie had so many fans! Your thoughts, words, and prayers were very much appreciated, and it just warms my heart to realize how many good, compassionate, people there are.

Bonnie's last day was a good day; I pestered her a bit to wake her up around 1:00pm. I knew her sleep wasn't particularly peaceful anyway; she seemed to be twitching in pain a great deal. She hadn't eaten much of her breakfast, but I wanted her to have a chance to eat the roast beef I had for her. I warmed it up, and the aroma got her quite interested! She came trotting into the kitchen, and I gave her the roast beef, mixed with her favorite dog treats!

I was about to eat my own lunch, but couldn't. The rain had mostly let up, and I thought, why not? I took her for a walk in the drizzle. It's been a long time since she got to go on a long walk, mainly because I was afraid I'd have to carry her back! And for about 40 minutes, she was totally blissed out! I let her lead the way, (sorry, neighbors), and tagged along under bushes, across lawns, around dumpsters, up to any tree she wanted (and there were so many!)

On a "regular" day, I would know that she would suffer for this walk later; it was not going to be so today. . .

When it rained much harder, I took her back home, where Doug met me, and he had a chance to feed her whatever treats, sausage, or cheese she wanted. Finally, it was time. . .

We went out to my car with her, and it had a flat tire! It's strange how your mind will work. . . my first thought was, "Well, then Bonnie doesn't have to go!", but I knew that wasn't true, and would not be fair to her, given what her life was now like.

We took our other car, and for Bonnie, I do think the process was so fast, that she was not distressed.

And Doug and I were unbelievably grateful for the flat tire! As Doug and I drove home, we knew we could stop crying because we'd have to deal with the flat tire! Normally, we would have called Road Side assistance through our auto insurance (if you don't have this, stop reading now and check with your insurance company! For about $8 a year, most auto insurance policies will provide tire repair, jump starting, emergency lock-out and towing. It's so worth it!)

But we wanted to change the tire! It was so wonderful to have to dig out the manual, have to figure out how to get the jack out of the back, how to raise the car, and how to get the bolts off. These are things that I used to do, way too many times, in my younger years, with my old junkers. Now, in my "mature" years, with my old junker, I call Roadside Assistance, and forgot how.

We brought the tire to Firestone, got the nail removed and put the tire back on our car. It gloriously took up two hours, all together, and it was so welcome, such a fine, concrete, task to preoccupy us! I strongly recommend a flat tire (preferably NOT in winter) for anyone under similar circumstances (but I don't want another one tomorrow).

And because I don't have a photo of the flat tire, here's a photo from the garden tour:







. . . or three.