Waaffi | Celebrate Life!

This is a tough one for me — both tough to photograph and tough to write about now. This is my brother, Gray, and his Boston terrier, Waaffi. Gray and his longtime girlfriend, Esther, adopted Waaffi when he was about a year old. He was the best pup — highly energetic and neurotic in all the best ways. Gray and Esther had somewhat recently returned home to Maine after a month-long road trip and finally had an opportunity to take in a dog, which they had both wanted for a long time. He had a few bumps along the road, including getting hit by a car (which he survived with minimal injuries, amazingly enough!), but they had no way of preparing for what was to come. In May of 2014 he developed a limp and it seemed that his shoulder area was sore, which they naturally chalked up to a pulled muscle. It worsened as the months went on, to the point where he would yelp in pain at the slightest touch. They brought him to a physical therapist and their vet, but nothing seemed to work… until he was finally x-rayed and diagnosed with a cancerous mass on his spine. That fall he underwent surgery to remove the mass and subsequent radiation therapy for 3 weeks at The New England Veterinary Oncology Group (NEVOG) in Waltham, MA. This seemed to help immensely — he was tired and sore after both of these treatments but his energy and endurance picked up for the first time in months, and Gray and Esther were so relieved and excited to be able to take him for walks again. Unfortunately, in early 2015 — just a few months after his seemingly successful treatment — the pain returned, and they learned that the tumor had come back, not only bigger, but higher up on his spinal cord so surgery wouldn’t be possible without severely paralyzing him. They knew the likelihood of radiation doing anything but prolonging his life by another few months was nil, so in an effort to be as humane as possible, they arranged to have him put to sleep.

These photos are from the night he was taken in to be euthanized. They had hoped to spend one last night with him and take him the following morning, but he was in too much pain. We — my mother, husband, and I — wanted to spend a last hour or two with him before he passed away, and I asked Gray if he would like some photos to remember the night. Not to remember the pain and anguish, but to remember them giving him all the love they possibly could for his short time on earth.