It's hard to say good bye

My mom was really close to our first dog. After all, they spent the most time together, and so, even though I was going to miss him as well, my mom was far more distraught when we had to put him to sleep. I'll never forget when she brought him home after he was put to sleep and she just sat there, for like an hour, and held him, crying. She wanted to make sure that he was actually dead because she heard that sometimes the animals didn't die right away when getting the shot. Though he had been on the verge of death for so long, it was surprising he hadn't died of natural causes by then.