The appointment was for 9:15 and we thought it would be a treatment and back home. I had put her in the van and with her trusting ways, she waited as I climbed into the drivers seat, watching both me and Barb. The dark colored bulge on her stomach was not visible now and it seemed a strange thing to be taking her to the vet for just a small growth. But better safe than sorry. She looked up at Barb with those brown eyes doing as they always did and Barb responding to it with the coos and ahs that sounded so much like she was talking to a baby. I glanced at her thick, buff colored hair and I could see her in my minds eye, floating through the air, for she never ran so much as float, tail flying behind her as her mouth open and seemingly smiling she covered the ground. You certianly could see the wolf that was part of her makeup. We talked about the new fencing we were going to put up so she and her partner could have more ground to play in, for at nine years old she still had that exuberant attitude of a puppy. As I turned onto the highway,she placed her head on my leg and looked into my eyes with all that love and trust she always gave me. She moved as close as she could to me, without taking her eyes away from mine and sat quietly as I and Barb stroked her head. At the vet's I left her in the van with Barb to make arraingements inside for I didn't want to try and hold her with all those animals in the lobby. Thirty minutes later they were ready so I lifted her into my arms and carried her into the examination room. The vet was with us almost right away and as soon as we turned her on her side I could see that what had been visible at first was but the tip of the iceburg. There were many bulges and as my eyes focused on the vets face, I knew there would be no going home for her. As he explained what was there I reached for my wife and the word, cancer and breast cancer, rolled into one. Options were discussed and when the realization that euthanasia was the best one, I could see the tears rolling down my wife's face. I remembered saying that I couldn't stand to see her suffer and when he said that that was all that was left for her, my wife looked at me and we agreed that this was what had to be done. All the time we had been turning her and the vet was checking her out, she lay silently, trustingly, never a whimper or struggle, just that faithful trust. I couldn't speak and my wife and I softly stroked her hair as the vet shaved her fore leg, inserted the needle, and slowly injected the fatal dose. I watched as her eyes slowly closed and she slipped into that eternal sleep.