OT - My best friend is gone...

[Greg D.]

Well, it was his last day today... My 15 years old dog and workshop best friend was put to sleep today. We had a baby last year and he never really accepted his new rank in the family. What made him happy a few years ago didn't make him budge of an inch today. He started to bark and show his teeth whenever he didn't appreciate what was going on around him. He's never done that before and never had any form of aggressivity. Unfortunately, it's was a very bad mixture with a one year old baby trying to grab him every minute... An accident waiting to happen.... The question was not "if it will happen" but more "when it will happen".

I couldn't recognized him anymore, he became an animal you just feed everyday but can't really touch anymore. He used to always be in the same room as us but during the last year he was avoiding us as much as he could. Not him anymore.

Ah crap... you wish those moments will never happen but they do and when it happens it hurts like you would never suspect. He's been such a great pet always there and close by when things weren't going right. I think memories of all that good time with him hurts me more than anything else. Fortunately, I have a wonderful son and I'll have many years of joy sharing all I know with him about woodworking and... life.

Ô well, I just felt tonight like saying goodbye to a good old friend and I hope he appreciated his life with me as much as I appreciated mine with him around.

Goodbye boy and have a good time up there!

Greg D.

[stoutman]

I think you made the right decision, as painful as it is.

A dog that we had for 6-years snapped at my son (2 years old at the time) and bit him just above the eyebrow and forehead. It just barely broke the skin, but that same day we surrendered him to a shelter (that eventually found him a new home).

He also was a very good dog up until my son started to get to close to him.

You just never know and it just isn't worth the risk. It was very hard for us to make the decision to get rid of him, but I think we made the right one.

[Enoch Root]

I think animals get some kind of Alzheimer's, too.

A FoaF's cat, at the same age, would absolutely flip when it walked in front of the floor length mirrors on the closet doors in their bedroom.

They taped foil to the bottom of the mirrors.

A pity about the dog, my condolences.

er

[tom]

Sorry about your dog. Mine are AWOL right now. Man, you post a lot! Tom

[nailshooter41]

Sorry about your buddy, Greg. I know when I put my old Shephard down, it was harder than anything I could have imagined. Until he couldn't, a snap of the fingers and that dog was at my side, no matter what.

I do think they get senile, and suffer from mental imfirmaries just as humans do. So does the vet that takes care of our little mini cockers. After 12 years of being together, they are starting to fight like hell and actually hurting each other. The vet told me that they are indeed old, and they probably are hurting to some extent (one has pretty bad back problems we are controlling with meds) from different joint aches and pains.

They are getting meaner and crankier, and I am wondering how much longer this will go on.

But once again for you, I am sorry for your loss. The best thing about it though, in just a short while you won't remember anything at all negative about him and he will always be the pet you love so much in your memory.

Robert

[Upscale]

Losing a pet is really tough. Having to take your pet to the vet to put it down is even harder, but it's helping to end the pain that your loved one is in, much as you hurt. Most of the hurt will eventually go away, but not all of it. I adopted a cat I'd seen online at a local animal shelter six months ago because she looked so much like the one I had that died twenty years ago. When I called the shelter to inquire, they told me she was pretty sick and might not make it. All those two weeks waiting to see if she got better was hell. But, she did get better and right now she's sleeping between my arms as I'm typing this message.

[scott]

If I could trust my best friend to make the call to put an end to my suffering when the time comes, then my last memory would be of love.

Sorry for your loss, but you have done the right thing by your son and your dog.

Scott

[Richard]

I too am very sorry for your loss. People who have not had to make that difficult decision, and have not allowed a pet into their hearts have no way of knowing the depth of pain afater their loss. May God grant His healing to your heart, and may you feel His love, as you seek Him. God bless, Richard

[Searcher]

Was there actually anything medically wrong with the animal, or was the animal put down due to an inexplicable change in behaviour?

Just curious

Searcher

[Dukes909]

I think the OP mentioned in another post that his dog had bad arthritis and was in pain causing agression.

[Leon]

I have a Choc Lab working on 14. Before her a Great Dane that made it to 10 with similar symptoms that you describe. Before that a 7 year old Weimeraner. Be happy that you had so many hears of friendship and move on as soon as you can.

[Frank Boettcher]

Sorry about that. It's too bad, but 15 is a long life for a dog.

I'm a runner and have run with my dog since whe was about a year. We run on woods trails and it is what she lives for. She is going on 11 and I dread the day that arthritis sets in and she can't run any more. Frank

[Mark and Kim Smith]

What do you do with a large dog after it has passed?? I had a little dog and a couple of cats that had a special place in the back yard, but something like a German Shepard is pretty big. Not sure if I'll be able to keep it together when my ol' buddy goes. OP: sorry for your loss!

[Lenny]

I know how hard it can be to lose a pet, especially hard when you have to put them down. One thing I can't imagine is how hard it would be to live with the burden of having a child attacked by an animal I suspected was capable of such things.

Lenny

[David]

Greg, I had to put down my elderly dog more than a year ago and I know how difficult and painful it must have been for you, in spite of knowing it was necessary. Last night I wept like a baby over recalling the moment I held her in my arms as the vet administered the shot that nearly instantly quelled her beautiful life. Yesterday my wife gave me a book for Valentine's, "Marley & Me", by John Grogan. I started to read it, and then re-read the first couple of pages out loud to her, when I was overwhelmed by emotion for the loss of my sweet little bundle of joy.

Your pet has joined mine and I'm sure they are running around having a great old time!

You'll always have the memories of having had him around for those 15 precious years.

Dave

[Vic Baron]

Sorry for your loss Greg. I just had to put my cat down - had him since he was 6 weeks old - he was 21 - which is very old for a cat. It talking to the vet, he mentioned that animals can develop mental issues as they age, much as we humans do. Sounds like your pal was doing that also. I am 69 and even with all the times that I've lost a pet, it does not get any easier. Cried like a baby. Fortunately, have two more cats that occupy my time. Had a dog also be he passed several years ago and I'm just not up to introducing a new dog to two old cats :)

In a year or two you might want to consider getting a pup for your baby to grow with.

As someone else said, time will heal the pain.

I expect your pal is chasing my pal all over the heavens and having a ball.

Vic

[Thomas Adams]

I understand and feel your loss. I have set through several times of putting a pet down. It never gets easier. They become part of our lives. More than just a dog or cat. Years ago I had to do the merciful duty and have my old dog put down. He had been with me through two marriges and more that a few moves. He was like, no he was my best friend. This was tough but old age had set in and it was time. It was also rough on the two dogs left behind. About

3 weeks after that the puppy that the wife and I got about 9 months earlier got sick and she lived only a week in ICU with a freaky auto immune disorder. This was a double whammy. We gave ourselves some time to grieve but within a month we went to the shelter and came home with a new puppy. A new pet will never replace one that has passed. They help you to heal. Don't wait too long before getting your son and you a new friend. Kids and dogs are just made to be together. While setting there one afternoon shortly after losing the puppy I heard something in my head and felt compelled to write it down. I don't know if it will help but is sure has helped me. "Pets are one of God's gifts to us. They prove that He loves us.

Some of God's greatest miracles are pets.

Pets are God's training for heaven. They teach us to love unconditionally.

Pets love us like God loves us. Forever and without condition.

People without pets live lonely lives, like people without God do."

-- Tom Adams

[John Thomas]

Greg D. wrote in news: [e-mail]: [snip]

Greg,

Sorry for your loss, but as painful as these decisions are, it sounds like you made the best one.

We had to have our big guy put down about a while back. It was a decision we struggled with for a long time. He had cancer in one kidney

- we had that one removed. The vet said we might have another 6 months with him; we were lucky, it was well over a year. He finally started getting agressive, too.

We'd lost pets in the past, suddenly; but this was a whole different level of difficult. In talking to the vet once, about "the right time", she made a comment that really helped. Her analogy was "How do you know when you're going to fall in love?" - you don't -- it's just something you *know*; it sounds like you knew this was the right time.

Again, you have my sincere condolences.

[tom]

Tom Adams wrote: snipsnip

It's good to hear that you went to the best place to find a new pet. Too many animals are filling up our local shelters, and you helped make a difference at yours. Tom

[Greg D.]

Well, he had other health problems I didn't mention in the first post. He had a hard time climbing the stairs and he was getting very anxious whenever he had to do it. Among other things, he was deaf at 80% and he had a grey haze in his eyes. He would have become blind eventually. Technically he was managing every day so it wasn't showing too much. I doubt very much he could have live many more years.

Also, when you think about it, health is not only flesh and bones but also what you've got between your two ears. Even though he was physically OK, he wasn't the dog I used to know anymore. He was obsessed by food but he wasn't interested in us anymore.

More I talk about it, more I feel it was the right decision but it doesn't diminish the pain for the loss...

Thanks,

Greg D.