Man's best friend: When is it time?

She's not hurting anymore, DW. You should (and will, I'd wager) take comfort in that.

 

Thinking about you, Dick. We're here if you need us.

 

Sorry Dick. You'll see her again someday.

 

Dick, you did right by your dog for 15 years. Well done.

 

How are you feeling, Dick?

At peace with your decision and the timing, I hope?

In my opinion, you should feel good about things, but it's more important what you think and how things are going.

 

OK, I guess. I'll write more later - busy morning with some deadlines to meet.

It's weird, I'll say that. She was a constant presence in our lives for 15 years, and now she's just not there any more. It's strange to go downstairs in the morning and she's not there.

 

Sorry to hear she's gone, Dick. That's the best $300 you could have spent, though. It should give you peace of mind to know that it really was her time and things were not going to get better for her. You did the right thing.

 

This whole thing just has me dreading the day I have to make the same decision. We have two dogs, an 8-year-old yellow lab and a 2-year-old labradoodle. My son is the same age as the labradoodle (they were born two weeks apart) and has never known life without them. We have a daughter due in May, and it'll be the same for her. Not looking forward to them having to through that.

 

The most heart-wrenching moment, which I keep going over in my head, is when my son looked at us with tears in his eyes, after we'd already told him and he had cried a little, and said, hopefully, "Maybe the doctor can try to keep her alive just until July?" I'm welling up thinking about it.

My wife put her arm around him and said, "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. But ... she already died. You understand that, right?"

We got him laughing and talking about all the funny stuff she did, though, so he was OK.

 

Well said, VB. Big, big +1 your second graf. Dick, my condolences. Thank you to all that have posted thoughts during this tough time for Dick and his family. Tremendous amount of heartfelt advice.