You are my Romeo, My only Romeo
Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

FROM Tony Frier and Greg Gude, Broome Animal Sanctuary BAS
Facebook posting, September 26, 2021

To our surprise Romeo lived 6 more months; in those 6 months he was happy, comfortable and got constant love... The sanctuary just will not be the same.

With broken hearts we share with you that our boy Romeo passed away in his sleep last night.

Romeo was diagnosed with bone cancer 6 months ago. We were told at that time that we could try treatment, but it would require Romeo to go back and forth to Cornell and that his quality of life would most likely not be good. At Romeo’s advanced age we could not put him through all the stress and misery that comes from treating cancer. Our only other options were to give him palliative care at home or have him euthanized. We were told with palliative care Romeo might have a few weeks or possibly a few months. We decided to bring Romeo home on palliative care to live his final days at home with his family and when the time would come, we would help him cross. To our surprise Romeo lived 6 more months; in those 6 months he was happy, comfortable and got constant love.

Romeo was a family pet for 10 years until his human died. The family did not know what to do with him so they reached out to a shelter on Long Island that agreed to take Romeo until a home could be found. Romeo had a wonderful and loving caregiver at the shelter. A year after Romeo arrived at the shelter we were contacted to see if we could possibly take Romeo. We weren’t sure we could, but we said yes. Saying yes to Romeo was one of the best Yes’s we ever said yes to.

On October 6, 2017, Romeo was transported by Katherine K Wilson and her husband from Long Island to BAS. We’ll never forget watching them get their portable ramp from the roof of their SUV and then watched as Romeo walked down the ramp like he already owned the place. Romeo was extremely heavy and blind when he arrived. It took a while, but we were able to get him to a healthy weight and he maintained that weight until a few months ago. Up to his last meal last night he had a very healthy and insatiable appetite.

After dinner last night he laid down and I sang to him my usual “You are my Romeo” to the tune of “You are my Sunshine”. I don’t know why, but he always seemed to like it. As I did every night, I told him how much we loved him along with a list of people that would ask us to tell Romeo they loved him. He would get several snout kisses which he loved and then he would fall asleep and start snoring. After he fell asleep around 7:30 we closed the sanctuary and went inside. Usually, one of us would go back out at midnight for a first welfare check of the evening. I decided to go out just before 10 to take Romeo his freshly warmed blanket, fresh strawberries and his Pedialyte. When I got to his stall he had passed away in his sleep. Even though we knew his time was nearing an end and that his body and soul were getting tired, we just weren’t prepared to say goodbye.

The sanctuary just will not be the same. We’ll miss Romeo’s enthusiasm at mealtime. We’ll miss his snuggles, cuddles and snout kisses. Because he was blind Romeo never saw us or knew what our faces looked like, but we know he knew what our hearts looked like. Tonight, our hearts are full of sadness and gratitude with yet another deep and painful break.

For Romeo:

You are my Romeo, My only Romeo
You make me happy, When skies are grey
You’ll never know dear, How much we love you
We’ll reunite, again, one day.
We love you Romeo. Rest now baby boy, until we are together again.

Love Papa’s Tony & Greg


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