Putting my dog down tomorrow--advice requested

On to 4 pages about some dog meeting the grim reaper. I’m sorry for your loss, but I couldn’t care less since I’m a cat guy.

If you know it's time has come and he/she is in pain, make it happen peacefully. I feel for you man. Dogs are the best.

Do you burn the beast? wrote:

I’m sorry for your loss, but I couldn’t care less . . .

That doesn't make any sense. You've been hanging around cats for too long.

My dog's last day last August- my x-wife and I sat in the backyard with him- it was a beautiful August day.

We got him some premium beef and haagen dazs ice cream.

He mostly just laid there, but it was peaceful for him.

When we took him to be put down, I swear he had a smile on his face when the vet said that he was gone and at peace.

Do you burn the beast? wrote:

On to 4 pages about some dog meeting the grim reaper. I’m sorry for your loss, but I couldn’t care less since I’m a cat guy.

What has 2 legs... and is red all over????

Half a cat!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAAA

Do you burn the beast? wrote:

I'm a cat guy.

I'm sorry to hear that. Were you born an inferior person or is this something that just developed at some point in your life?

Glad I'm alone in the office today because I'm sitting at my desk crying. Against my better judgement, I opened the Rainbow Bridge link from the first page but I don't think I can read it, god! It is so hearbreaking to lose a pet. We always had cats growing up, and I think I was 7 or 8 the first time one died from age/illness -- it was hard. There have been a number of others over the years, including our sweet family cat who lived to be 18 or so -- we got her when I was 8 and she died not long after the dog I talk about below.

When I was 10 we got a dog for the first time, and she passed when I was 24. I hadn't lived at home for 6 years at that point but I was pretty devastated when she died -- more for my dad than anything, as they were BEST. BUDDIES. They were inseparable and we always joked that the dog was my dad's favourite daughter. As dramatic as this sounds I honestly don't know the last time I felt abject grief like that, and again I'd only lived with her for half her life! That intense sadness (both missing her and for my dad) only lasted for a little bit, but for months afterwards I would sometimes get caught in this weird feeling of like, phantom being able to feel her fur/pet her -- if that makes sense. My parents still haven't gotten another dog and that was 4 years ago. I still miss her and I know they do too.

I distinctly remember when we got her that the breeder told us the typical lifespan for this breed was 14 years, and wouldn't you know it -- she lived 14 years. She had developed cancer though and was starting to be a different dog towards the end and I wonder if my parents shouldn't have put her down sooner. You just never know when the right time is.

I have two cats with my partner and while it's comforting to know that they will likely be with us for the next 15+ years and our child will get to grow up with them, it's somewhat devastating to think that one day they'll go as they really are such a part of our household and family. Even though this isn't true and every animal makes its way into your heart, you just can't imagine replacing the pets you have or that another pet could compare.

Well said. This thread has actually been pretty good by LRC standards. Only a few 15 year old trolls with an undeveloped sense of humor (or sadly 35 year old trolls that still have a 15 year old's sense of humor)

ChadBrad wrote:

If it’s any comfort, in my experience nobody ever puts a dog down too early. If you think it’s time it almost certainly is.

Second this. If a dog is showing signs of pain, it is extreme pain. Dogs aren't soft like humans. Dogs are the best, it is unfortunate they don't live as long as we do. As Samuel L. Jackson said in Pulp Fiction, "A dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way."

Coevett wrote:

I'm never having a pet until radical life extension is proven, which is likely very soon.

Today it was announced that an ongoing study of senolytic treatments in mice revealed that after 130 weeks, 90% of the mice treated with the drugs were still alive. The average lifespan of lab mice is just 2 years.

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2018/07/oisin-biotechnologies-produces-impressive-mouse-life-span-data-from-an-ongoing-study-of-senescent-cell-clearance/

These treatments are going to be tested on dogs very soon, both by medical researchers and no doubt by owners of aging dogs :

http://dogagingproject.com/

A Harvard startup aims to have treatments that rejuvenate dogs within the next 5 years, and in humans within the next decade :

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611018/a-stealthy-harvard-startup-wants-to-reverse-aging-in-dogs-and-humans-could-be-next/

That is interesting stuff, but modern medicine and the belief that man should live forever is what is bankrupting social security, pension funds and the medicare system. People are supposed to die, dogs are supposed to die, etc. Can they make something like this? Sure. Should they? Absolutely not. If they do, it needs to be priced accordingly and require that any individual that undertakes has to wait 5 extra year before they can draw on social security, IRAs, medicare, etc. Death is a part of life, we are not meant to be immortal.