Sadness on the mountain, loss of a pet

  This is not my usual day, or topic, but sometimes, things need saying.
  Shortly after my son and his wife moved here, a starving, scared blue tick coon dog was seen up the mountian behind their house.  It took time, but  they finally persuaded her to come and eat. After a lot of patience and coaxing, she became their  girl.  They named her Dolly. And she had the sweetest disposition. She was a good watch dog, but loved her keepers. And when my husband and I moved here, she took us under her wing and guarded our house too. Many a morning she would look in the back door to see if we had a treat for her.
  She has lived here over 10 years, and best guess is she was about  2 years old when she wandered in. The  last few months, she has been plagued by a couple of sores that would not heal, the vet said they were cancer and he could take them off. So yesterday morning was the day of her surgery.
   Just a few months ago, the second dog who had adopted the kids, had chased something up the mountain and did not return. Fear was that a bear was up there. We will never know that for sure. But the kids decided to get into a foster dog program. A lot of cage building and preparation later, a big bull type of dog named Cochise, who is suffering from heart worms came to recuperate.  He has quickly adapted to the family, and to Dolly who watched over him like a mother hen.
  Yesterday when the truck with Dolly in it pulled out, Cochise began barking. Very incessant and demanding, like "come back, come back!"
When the truck did come back, he wanted out and went to check  things out, circling the truck, looking for his buddy.
  A short time after the surgery, the vet called my son to come get Dolly. She was still mostly out from the anesthetic. Being large, around 90 pounds, she was hard to move around but was taken into the shop to stay by my son while he worked. Cochise checked her out and promptly left the room going to the other end of the shop. Not long after, Dolly died. 
 Guess the vet thought heart failure.  But now we get the days of what ifs, and whys, and should it have been done otherwise,  and will never know all those things.
  There is a gentle rain falling, maybe it's in sadness for the loss of a special girl who lived on the mountain and made friends with all of us. We will surely miss her.
  It's a known fact that animals have a sense of life, death and things going on around them. Too bad we are not as in tune with the people we know.  The world would be a better place if we all had such compassion for those around us.