dogs when to say good bye??

[wkules]

Trev,
Sorry to hear about your impending loss. I have had to go through this three times in my life and it has been equally painful each and every time. My heart goes out to you and your family. Just know in your heart that you are not alone in your pain and you are doing the right thing. You will regret watching your pet suffer much more than the regrets you feel for doing the humane thing. You're in my prayers, God Bless.
Wayne

[Pasquatch]

Thought I had to put mine down yesterday   luckily, Tim got to come home, with a prescription for a tumor, he's suposedly got alot more time.     

[flagrunner]

HiTrev,just curious as to how you made out at the vets today,thoughts are with you.

[marshrat]

I know how you feel i had to let my golden down 1 year ago although it was very hard i am lucky to have his daughter but she is getting old an i am afraid i will have to put her down soon she has bad hip's and is in pain you know the right answer you don't need to be told do whats best for the dog

[Cook078]

It will get better with time.....but I can say from recent experience, it will be one of the hardest things you will EVER do.  We had to put our dog down last Nov. (2003 now) He somehow developed diabetes and eventually lost his eyesight...That was the hardest part.  I came home from work one day and heard him barking.....he could'nt find his way home anymore, and I knew it was time.....I never told anyone this, but when I took him to the vets on his last day by myself, I could'nt even see the vet and assistant because the tears would not stop... I mean, I am six foot tall and 250 lbs., I am supposed to be TOUGH!!!  But the emotions are just too strong....But I did stay in the room with him the whole time, and after I watched him go to sleep, after I knew his pain was over, I knew in my heart that I made the right decision......

It will get better with time.....

Mike

[trev.357]

i was going to post later  but i might not feel like it ,but here it goes  the lump in his throat has grown by half his bloody diarrhea can be treated but why starve him for 36 hrs i made the choice it will be tonight at 7.45 pm (i pre paid ).we all plan to eat together and to have some play time, and my son drew him a picture to take with him to where ever he is going in the next life (i picked out one of his pull toys) .i picked out a very nice oak dog house urn with a plaque with his name and years on it . i still feel like I'm making the wrong choice but in my heart i know it is the right one to make.

I WISH TO THANK ALL OF YOU FOR RESPONDING ,IT HELPS TO HEAR FROM OTHERS LIKE ME FROM THE HUNTING AND FISHING  WORLD

[Cook078]

You are doing the right thing.......it will take time but you will see, it will get better....

Mike

[Gamalot]

Hey Trev and Family, Our blessings are with you all and with your pooch.
Please put a name here for us so we can have him and you guys in our prayers tonight.
Sad day and I am sure it brings tears to the eyes of all us tough guys.
By the way, very few dogs have sins and they therefore go to doggy heaven so he will be just fine and probably hanging out ice fishing with new buddies.

[Jigmaster]

Trev,
I just had to put my Lab down Jan 12th, after 13 of the best years of my life. I know exactly what you are going through. I took him to the vet myself and felt very good after it was done knowing that Max is in a better place. You and your family will make it through, it is just really tough at first always asking yourself if you made the right choice, YOU DID!, so please don't second guess yourself on this one!

[fozsey]

  

Trev.

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I wish with all my heart that things could be different for you. God Bless...

[flagrunner]

Trev, we are so sorry you had to make this decision....I've been reading all the posts and am sitting here knowing how much pain you're in right now.  You did the right thing- you put him ahead of you and that's what real love is all about, right?  We will miss our Midnight forever, but even through the tears some memory or other has made us laugh each day since he had to leave us.  God bless- Wayne and I will say a prayer for you tonight.

flagrunner's wife

[trev.357]

again thank you all and the deed is done at 8.05 pm  the vet said he went very quick i noticed the same thing i guess his was ready to go .we had a great supper (MacDonald's) and played the rest of the evening. Freckles was a 10 year old Dalmation not the best hunting dog in the world  but he was good at getting squirrels and snakes  and ripping my shot birds up and he just plain loved coming out with me, our home will never be as safe with him gone  . sometimes i feel bad since we had our son 5yrs ago maybe i didn't spend as much time with him as i should have but every  week we'd get out hunting.  what a bad day

Freckles January 1995/February2005

[Jigmaster]

Trev,
You and yours are in our thoughts and prayers.

[billditrite]

trev my heart really goes out to you , you could not have done things any better. you sent your best friend to the happy hunting grounds with his dignity in check. have faith that he is in a better place.you are a good and caring man and i admire and respect that. we will include freckles in our prayers . God bless

[missfishylicious]

Trev I can't see the keyboard to well through the tears but I have to tell a few things
first you did the right thing for your friend
but theres one thing I have always believed
that dogs live forever and grace our lives for knowing them
i believe in reincarnation when comes to dogs
your friend is out there you may never find him again
he may put a sparkle in the eye of a child with illness he may guide a blind man
you might find him in a kannal or shelter (sometime down the road)
but know that a second after you put him down he was squeeling at the teat of a new mother somewere and will bring unending joy to his next owner


heres why I believe this some might call it couincidence some may call it denile
when I was first married Iwe got a golden pup
well we lived in the country and i didn't drive long story short she was more than a best friend when she was ten she had somekind off collapse and couldn't walk or breath easy and we put her down
after about a month we asked a guy with a gloden wee he got it and called the kennel well it turns out they had a light colored golden so we got our new pup just for imunisation purposes I asked the guy when she was born he said lets see june 7th
I put my golden down june 6th to much of a coincidence for me
we named her the same name
our friends thought we lost it but who cares what they think

Trev some people I'm sure said to you it's just a dog chalk it up to ignorance and forgive them

 Mike you are tough ,it's the hardest thing in the world to do, hold a loved ones hand /paw through death
god I gotta go clean my self up

[missfishylicious]

had to repost this
The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world
The one that never deserts him
The one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous
is his dog
A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty
in health and sickness
He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely
If only he may be near his master's side
He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer
He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world
He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince
When all other friends desert he remains
When riches take wing and reputation falls to pieces
He is as constant in his love as the sun in it's journey through the heavens
unknown author

[Mongo]

Trev, you did the best thing that you could have done for the dog.

[TroutFishingBear]

I have an almost pure bread collie that will be 14 in march. She broke her leg when she was 11 when she got hit by a car. We got the leg fixed and she went through 1 year of miserable recovery. After being an outside dog on our 3 acre property most of her life, she hated being inside. Now, she is 14 and in better shape then in the last 3 years. But she has arthritis fairly bad and she doesn't hear so well now. (only about as good as a human) She still loves to go outside and, even if she isn't constantly patroling our 3 acres anymore, she is at least sitting and I can tell she is still happy. When it is time for her to go (probably within a year, her hearing has went very fast) I will let her go but it will be one of the hardest days of my life. I also have a pure bread border collie who will be seven in may who loves her very much too, and when she goes I hope it isn't like the novel "Where The Red Fern Grows" and he gets so miserable he dies.

Trev., you have my 100% heartfelt grief right now. I am sure freckles is happy with what you did. Take care.

[iceman04]

almost wish i hadn't found this thread . . . wow.  now its hard not to reply . . . just glad no one is here to see the few tears roll down my eyes.

my first dog i ever had i got when i was in the fourth grade, she died unexpectdedly at night 4 1/2 years later(vet said stomach turned or something), i never even knew it when i left for school that morning, my father had told me later that evening when he picked my up after school.  the worst of it was, i had just written a paper for my high school english teacher about her and the next day in class he was asking me all about her (he was a dog lover) i was really too choked up to tell her she no longer was part of the family so i answered his questions about her as best i could .  .  . dad buried her under an apple tree at my grandparent's house where my grandfather used to bury their dogs when dad was a kid . . . it was four years later that i bought the dog i have now as a senior in h.s., all on my own, my parents didn't even know about it, i just left one saturday and came back with a pup, she's a redbone coonhound, not the best hunting dog but she gives it her all . . . i sometimes ask myself why i bothered setting myself up for the inevitable again . . . she's four now and two years ago we had a neighbors dog jump the fence when she was in heat and she had puppies, she didn't take the pregnancy/birth too well and i ended up feeding eight pups by hand and spending about 600 dollars on her to keep her alive.  its all been worth it . . . my father now has one of her puppies and my unlce another.  i just tell myself she'll live to be about 30     my thoughts and heart felt prayers go out to you and your family trev. 

[missfishylicious]

oh they live to be about 90 most times 
It's those "dog years " that get ya

[iceman04]

exactly   

[flagrunner]

Midnight was almost 14,at the vets office there was a chart and the best we could figure out he was between 88-101 years old.That 14 years went quick for me now that i think about it,i wonder how it seemed to him.I miss him deeply,i hope hes ok.

[missfishylicious]

If you think about it ,he must have run circles around you for most of his life .that why dogs age so much faster.I'm sure he's fine, keep looking into the eyes of dogs you run into, you'll see a little bit of him in all of them. sooner or later you'll see one who reminds you so much of him ,that you'll want to take him home.keep your heart open  he'll find you.

[walleye1]

I think you might be onto something MFL. A few years ago My sister's yellow Lab, named Bear, passed away. After a few weeks they decided to get another dog. This time they figured they would go to the pound and rescue one. Well, they go to the pound and lo and behold there was a yellow Lab sitting there. You guessed it, his name was Bear! Needless to say, he went home with them and has been like their old dog reincarnated. Pretty freaky eh?   

[Cook078]

Kinda like when we had to put our dog to sleep....Said thats it, no more dogs, too hard to deal with.....well that lasted all of 3 months, and we ended up with this on our doorstep.....Kinda funny noone claimed this dog after contacting humane society, dog warden, local vets office, newspaper ad, and police dept.  This dog showed up in -20 weather.  We did not tie him up, figured he would go home.....but he did'nt leave.  He would just go out to the bathroom and come back in....After a month of this, we adopted him because people were saying "your dog is running across the road and almost got hit"  Yep, he is now our dog, and it has been 1 year since Feb. 17 at 2:00 AM.................... ............

Mike

PS  My fiancee was working 2nd shift, came home, open garage door up to go to the porch when she saw the dog...So she calls me on the cell phone and says mike, theres something on the porch, I think its a red fox.....So as I get out of bed to see this "fox"  I sure was shocked at what I saw.....at first it did look like a fox, but a REALLY big one.  So I'm looking at this fox, and telling her to stay in the garage, because I wanted to make sure it was'nt gonna bite anyone....Well it attacked alright, with his big wet tounge....LOL....nothi ng but love!!!!!

[iceman480]

Saying good bye to a loyal friend is very difficult. I know this first hand I had to put down my friend she was 16 yrs Siberian Husky. I had her since I was 13 It was tough but just knowing she wasn't suffering from the pain helped. Then later that year I had to put down my other buddy 6yr old Rat Teerior She got cancer That was even more difficult cause she was pretty young if you think about it. But once again it was the best for her. The thing is yoou dont want to do it but you cant be selfish. When their quality of life diminishes its time if their not playing like they used to or running around not eating good. If the quit doing two of the things that were their favorite things then its probably time but ultimately it is your decision. Sorry to here about your friend I know what it is like. Best wishes. Peace be with you.

[missfishylicious]

I think you might be onto something MFL. A few years ago My sister's yellow Lab, named Bear, passed away. After a few weeks they decided to get another dog. This time they figured they would go to the pound and rescue one. Well, they go to the pound and lo and behold there was a yellow Lab sitting there. You guessed it, his name was Bear! Needless to say, he went home with them and has been like their old dog reincarnated. Pretty freaky eh?   

some stuff I just know  .

[flagrunner]

Just would like to say i hope your rite MFL,we will be looking soon.I would like to see this thread continue theres alot of good people with pets that arnt doing as well as we would like.So please keep us posted and let us know how your friends are doing.Cook078 thats a nice looking dog that found you.

[missfishylicious]

well now that you mention it. my cat of 10 years is sick .brought her to the vet mon ,and took blood .shes ralfin all her food for five days now ,but the meds he gave me seem to help. shes a strickly indoor cat, so everytime i take her to the vet she catches cold. now shes sneezing.I'm worried about the results.it all reminds me when my golden got lymphoma. I hope it's bad hairballs but I'm nervous.hubbys on oneida lake right now .I had to stay home and give meds but I'm tempted to drive out there now.I'm going nuts waiting for the call.I know most guys don't care for cats so I didn't bring it up.Itook her mother from a shelter with five sick kittens only three kittens survived and i kept her and her mom.I hope she makes it

[flagrunner]

Sorry to hear about your cat MFL.,i hope its not lymphoma.Keep us up to date on her results.You say most guys dont care for cats and maybe your rite,but i gotta tell you we have six cats.I feed the neighborhood strays and after awhile im able to pet and even pick up,and after im able to get them in the house and we become friends its time to go to the vets,thats when they get all there shots and we have them fixed.I just feel like someone has to take care of them to.For the most part there outside cats but in the winter they spend alot of time inside.