Woman Posts Touching Tribute to Late Dog With Photo of Last Car Ride
The photo was snapped right before Libra the dog was put to sleep.
— -- A Florida woman's touching tribute to her late dog has been warming hearts across the Internet, after she posted a photograph of the pup enjoying her last car ride.
"[I hope] it'll make you appreciate the pet you still have," April Kramer of Cocoa Beach, Florida told ABC News. "Take them for that extra walk, or give them that extra piece of food because you never know when you could lose them."
Kramer, 25, said her family adopted her pet Libra, an American bull dog mix, when Kramer was 8 years old.
"She was so sweet and playful," Kramer said. "She loved eating table food, which I got yelled at all the time for feeding her. She slept in my bed all the time. She was everyone's little guardian. She just protected everybody and she was really, really loved."
Libra's health drastically declined in the fall of 2013 because of old age and an inoperable tumor on her lung, Kramer said. That's when the family decided to put her to sleep.
On the way to the vet, Kramer said she wanted to take one last photo of her dog, who died at 15 years old.
"I wanted a picture to remind me of how I always saw her," Kramer said. "She was sticking her head out the window and I thought it was perfect. It's a very special picture because it was the very last one ever taken of her. She looked so happy and peaceful, but I think she was ready to go. I think in a way, she was grateful."
Kramer posted the photo of Libra Friday enjoying the breeze on Reddit along with the caption “An Old Dog's Last Ride.”
Since then, the picture has had over 450,000 views.
Kramer said she hopes her photo of Libra prompts others to appreciate their pets as special members of their families.