“…So when tomorrow starts without me
Do not think we’re apart
For every time you think of me
Remember I’m right here in your heart”

As the grueling morning of Sunday, February 13, 2022, arrived, the fear of the morning after kicked in. How will I feel tomorrow, Monday, when he is no longer here to wake me up and greet me? I dreaded having to signal the Veterinarian to go ahead and push that IV that will make his heart stop. He was only four years of age, and cancer had destroyed him.

Two months earlier on the week prior to Christmas, the University of Georgia Veterinary Hospital had given us the news of his Lymphoma, giving him three months at the most to live. I made him three promises which I was able to fulfill. The promise of no more doctors’ visits, the promise of not letting him suffer, and the hardest of all… the promise of being with him until the last breath he would take. Promises were fulfilled, but not without a shattered heart.

As I dropped to my knees crying from the inability to reverse the course of nature, even as a member of the medical community, the only comfort was knowing he was no longer in pain. Likely the most guilt a human can feel… deciding to end the life of the most loyal kind of friend. It was me who signaled when his heart would stop beating. It was me who ended his life, and that decision was irreversible.

The guilt and pain likely will haunt me for the rest of my life, but it was time to make a positive from a negative.

We dedicate this memorial to the city of McDonough and all those who have loved and received that beautiful love from a simpler species. For each tag that is hung, some comfort and peace are reached while the love is simultaneously remembered.

We love you, Ace Fallas.

By Peto Fallas (Fallas Family Vision)