Lady

Lady is my families dog, a few years ago she was found sitting in their front yard with no collar. After a week of calling all the local shelters, vets and posting flyers she had gone unclaimed and the animal lovers that they are couldn't bare to see her go to the humane society so they took her in. She was a very sweet and energetic young black lab, probably about a year old. Over the years she has become another member of the family and brought lots of laughs and good memories.
A few months ago they noticed something on the top of her mouth, after watching it my dad noticed it getting bigger so he took her to the vet and had a tumor removed. The vet mentioned there was a chance of it coming back and if it did that would mean bad news. After careful watching they noticed another tumor about 2 weeks ago, took her to the vet and had it removed. The vet suggested they have it biopsied because it was most likely cancer. My dad decided not to have it biopsied because Lady was acting fine and if it was cancer he knew chemo or other medical involvement wouldn't be an option. He promised the vet if it came back he would have it biopsied and go from there.
Last week my family noticed Lady was low on energy and because of the heat they didn't think much of it because we were all low on energy. Friday night/Saturday morning my sister noticed that Lady wasn't acting herself, wasn't moving much and would occasionally twitch. Under her left eye it was starting to swell. My dad and Danielle took her to the vet a few hours later and received the worst new ever. There were multiple tumors in her head and brain, she was dying of cancer at 3-4 years old!
My family took the rest of the day to think about what was going on, the vet said she needed to be put down within a week as chemo wouldn't help her and they should let her go before she was in a lot of pain.
My sister called this morning and let me know they had made an appt and lady was going to be put down at noon. My heart is completely broken for my family, they asked me to go with them so I went but did not stay in the room when they let her go. I have cried more in the last 2 days then I have my whole life, Lady meant so much to my family.
I think that as much as my family saved Lady, Lady also saved my family. When my dad had his heart attack she was there for him. We all eventually had to go back to work and school, but Lady was there with him everyday keeping him sane. When he was finally able to go for walks the Dr. told him he couldn't walk the dog because they pull and she would pull him over. So the family and Lady would walk with my dad, eventually my dad starting walking her alone as she wouldn't pull when he was walking her, she would stay on the sidewalk and walk at his slow pace. For months they did this and I really think my dad would have lost it if it wasn't for her.
I could go on for hours about what a great dog she was but the most important thing is she was loved, she loved my family, she will be incredibly missed and never forgotten.