Moondog is euthanized at home after his cancer has advanced until he can barely stand and cries out in pain. The event brings the family together around his final hours: David Sheff and Karen witness his death, bury him in the garden, and grieve with Daisy and Jasper, who make a shrine for him in the rain.

The Decision and Final Hours

It is raining, and while the children are still at school, David Sheff and Karen sit with Moondog on the concrete kitchen floor. The veterinarian is there with them. Moondog rests his head on Karen’s lap as she strokes his ears. His cancer has taken over; he trembles, can barely stand, and cries out from pain. The family is devastated, but the decision is to end his suffering, and the veterinarian has come to do it at home.

The veterinarian gives Moondog an injection that puts him into a deep sleep. His breathing remains labored; after a second injection, he takes no more breaths. David Sheff also cries as he watches. The veterinarian stays with them for a while before leaving, making the end of Moondog’s life a shared, witnessed moment rather than a solitary medical procedure.

Burial and Family Mourning

Afterward, David Sheff and Karen struggle to carry Moondog’s heavy body, wrapped in a blanket, to a hole they have dug beneath a redwood tree in the garden. They bury him there. The physical difficulty of carrying him underscores the immediate weight of the loss, while the burial gives the family a specific place in their home to mark it.

When Daisy and Jasper return from school, they join Karen in making a shrine for Moondog in the rain. The children and adults cry both for the dog and for the sadness already filling their home. At bedtime, David Sheff and Karen read the children Dog Heaven, a picture book imagining that an angel may bring a dog back for a quiet visit to its old backyard, the neighboring cat, and the child on the way to school. The book offers the children an image of continued closeness, while the scene remains grounded in the family’s shared grief and Moondog’s absence.