Farewell, my Good Boy

This was a difficult one for me to post. Last October, my daughter's 6-year-old German Shepherd suddenly became ill and stopped eating. Scans revealed that he had multiple cysts in his abdomen and chest cavity. After paying for two surgeries to try and remove the cysts, tests showed that they had developed into an aggressive form of cancer and that there was really no more we could do for him. My daughter took her dog home and made arrangements for a vet to euthanize him there.

This was taken on his final day, a couple of hours before they finally put him to sleep. He had lost a lot of weight and his fur was shaved for the IVs and the surgeries. He loved the beach but was too weak to go out, so we all sat around her front yard with him and said our goodbyes. I'm crying as I write this because he was such a good dog and it broke all of our hearts to let him go. He was surrounded by love though, which was of some comfort.

I seriously debated if I should take photos of the day, but my daughter told me she wanted me to. I shot this with a Nikon Z8 using a 50mm f/1.8G lens set to manual and a Godox V1n flash set up on a stand with a softbox around it. I didn't really want to use flash, but the sun was already starting to set and light was fading fast. Settings were 1/60 seconds at f/4 and ISO 800. I didn't spend too much time setting up the flash, so it came out a bit harsher than I would have liked. The dog's expression was so moving though, that I really didn't want to disturb the moment. He knew he didn't have much time left, and the sadness in his eyes that day was such a stark contrast to the vitality and playfulness he normally had.