Watching your best friend (canine) get to the end....

The family is facing the end for our choc lab; she's one of the strongest things I've ever seen, wife and kids rescued her from a shelter 11-12 years ago when she was approx. 3 or 4 so she's now 14-15. She's never complained or whined about anything and we thought she was a goner 2 years ago when it looked like she had the big C (big blood discharge with bowel movement one day) but nope all good. However, now while we've given her meds to try to control pain and BMs, she wanders around aimlessly at the end of the night and won't get settled down for bed and she's having accidents where she ends up lying in her mess unless we can keep a constant eye on her (24 hrs almost).

She automatically bonded with my wife and while she certainly obeys and respects me, wifey is No. 1 and since its my wife's first dog (she always wanted one since she's been a kid), I've left the decision to my wife (I nudged her at one time and wifey said it will be her decision when).

So sad but I try to focus on the good times and we're lucky we've got the 2nd dog (who's now 9). I wonder how he'll respond when his canine pal is no longer around.

 

He'll mourn and have separation anxiety. Not all that different from you guys actually. Sorry to read about this, it is always so difficult when a fur baby gets to the end.

 

You weren't there at the beginning, but you'll have given her an idyllic middle and, when the time comes, a gentle end with an abundance of gratitude for all she's done for your family. I will give my best friend an extra cookie and belly rub while thinking of yours.

 

Thanks bud. Gave me a smile.

 

We had to put down our yellow lab last year at age 14. I carried all 80 pounds of her up and down the stairs to take her outside for most of the last year of her life. As her hind legs began to weaken, she occasionally fell down the stairs, which is when I started carrying her. She would have good days where she could get down on her own, but lots of bad ones. It finally got to the point where she no longer had good days, and there weren't any more on the horizon. That's when we realized it was time. Watching her take her last breath was horrible. "How could we do that to you?" was the sickening feeling in our guts.

The two other dogs searched for her around the house for days afterwards. Our little one, who had been bitten by the old girl the first day we had him when he tried to take her treat, wouldn't eat out of her bowl for about six months after she was gone.

It's hard, but it's kind of what we sign up for when we get a dog. And I'll take all the good days we had in exchange for the heartbreak of letting her go.

 

I’ve only had to put down one dog so far, and the “how could we do this to you?” feeling is what made me delay making the call for longer than I should have. That and being afraid to let go, I guess.

But a friend put it to me that letting her go, when she was in obvious pain, is the biggest favour I could have done her. Took me a while to grasp that but she was right. So that was comforting, even if still I tear up when writing about it six years later.

 

Gallaprant and Flexiden have been miracle osteoarthritis medications to our almost-17-year-old dog. He's not confident going down the stairs, but he recently figured out a new way (two legs at a time) that works for him. He's been to four countries. Has literally traveled on planes, trains and automobiles.

Knows about 20 words, none English. Tell him, "Preneci gazyetu!" and he'll fetch the newspaper.

 

This where we are with our lab mix ... He's 100 pounds and other than his back legs, completely healthy. We wrap a towel around his waist and use it as a handle to lift him. We'll do it as long as we can, because it's tough to imagine putting a dog down when he's sound in just about every other way. Adding to this, we have a 110-pound golden (who is huge, not fat), who just turned 11. So it's now a race to the finish. The next couple years will be tough. These will be our last dogs, most likely, so I'm trying to cherish the moments as much as possible.

 

This was Deoge (D.O.G. literally), an Aussie. He belonged to a famous sculptor who (with expecting wife) died in a car accident in 2003, ages 38 and 36.

I was here in Vermont when Steph brought Deoge over for the first time. Spent a lot of time playing with Deoge. Took Deoge on many walks. When Steph died, our mutual friend took Deoge in. When the mutual friend took his family on vacations, I'd watch Deoge for weeks at a time. Deoge was a big part of my life. He was the alpha dog of Bennington, big and fast and strong and friendly and playful. Everybody in Bennington knew and loved Deoge. He died in 2012 at the age of 16. By then he all but deaf, just about blind, and had some kind of cancer in his lower spine that made it difficult to stand or even walk. Here are a few photos I took of Deoge over the years from puppy to grandpa. Someone else took the shot of him standing on the oil tank next to me. Steph is holding the hula hoop to get our mutual friend's Aussie to jump thru puppy Deoge watched. It was his first day in North Bennington.




















Deoge was cremated taken to Steph's and Graham's gravesite for a special little ceremony (in the gold bag) before his ashes were scattered.