Miss Ugh is 15 years old, she belongs to our friends Ed and Carol Gulley, dairy farmers in White Creek, N.Y. Miss Ugh can barely stand up or eat, she circles and shakes and is subject to seizures, she has been incontinent for some time. The Gulleys are rabid animal lovers, they have saved and loved hawks, baby raccoons, countless dogs, chickens, goats and cows.

I watched Miss Ugh stagger around the kitchen today and I asked the Gulleys if they thought it was time for her to leave our world, perhaps move on to hers. Carol sits with Miss Ugh in their reclining chair in the living room, holding her every night, sometimes for hours. Ed holds her in his lap when he is in the house, he cleans up after her.

Ed is a tough farmer, he has seen all kinds of life and death and made many very hard decisions, but he says he can’t ever decided to put a dog down, he just cant do it. If it has to be done, Carol has to decide to do it. We talked about it for awhile, I think she is near the decision to put Miss Ugh down. She took us into the laundry room where their computer is and showed us photos of Miss Ugh and the grandkids, and also her own kids.

They love her dearly, and I imagine will make a decision sometime in the next week or so. There is so much love in Carol’s face for Miss Ugh, I feel for her, and she has enough on her plate now, their good neighbor and friend is in a coma following an awful tractor accident, they are trying to help his family in any way they can.

I am glad to have had the chance to photograph Miss Ugh, the decision to put a dog down is never simple, sometime it is the most loving thing one can possibly do. Sometimes we love by letting go. I’ll be thinking of Carol and Ed this week (he can’t bear to even talk about it.)