I kinda know how you feel about your dog, my dog is 12 years old and she is blind now. All she see is shadows . My parents tell me to put her to sleep, but somehow I can not do that I got her when I was 10 yrs old. When I come home from work or doing my intern she gets so happy to see me and acts like she two yrs old again. Eventualy I am gonna have to put to sleep, I know your pain bud. Good luck with that.

rekop1

wow...that was touching..i mean..what you did and said..i can sort of understand why you chose to keep her in your house..i would have done the same thing too..

i feel happy for your dad's dog..at least at this point in time, she still has someone to care so much for her and you know what??i bet she feels grateful for what you have done for her too..

cheers

tarantio

Sorry about your dog Dom. I completely understand. My family has had our dog since I was 4 years old. She is one old puppy! She can't see very well anymore, her hearing is gone (though we are of the opinion that she has selective hearing) and like your dog, her back legs just don't work like they used to, but our vet tells is she's not in any pain and she's still a healthy dog. She's still playful, loving, and just as protective of us as she was when she was younger. Every once in awhile we get worried about her, but we'll probably have her for at least another year and I know there is no way we would give up that year just because we had to take an extra minute to help her up the stairs. That being said, the day we see that she's in pain I hope we'll be able to make the right decision.

Good luck Dom and keep us posted!

OMG poor puppy :cry:

Dom your such a sweety <hugs> and <comfort>

Dom,

Hugs to you for your older puppy:) You are one of the good guys!! As long as the vet says your puppy isn't in pain and can function...I hope that your puppy does ok...is she light enough that you can pick her up to go up and down stairs? If not, I have watched news reports where older dogs get their own version of walkers with wheels..but of course going up and down stairs with wheels won't work.

I also understand "shutting down" when a family member dies..except when the puppy passes on well I feel that will be different since they give unconditional love.

Woo hoo as the $16.00 lottery win:)

I also agree with you about weddings...I loathe and hate them to no end.......grrrrrr!

Michael

I HATE it when the days get confused. It usually happens the same way for me. I'm all pumped b/c it's a Thursday and the weekends almost here! YAY and no. In reality it's Tuesday and I have SEVERAL days to get through before the weekend. *mutters 'stupid mind games'* lol

Anyway, what's your puppy like? Not the determined one from your dad's, but you said you have a second one as well? I love dog's. I hope both of them are getting along great!

- Kaiten

Heya Dom

It so great having pets and watching them grow from puppies or kittens, and then they get old and sick and it's the worst, having to make that decision.

I remember my cat Jewie. She was lovely...most of the time. A few years ago, she damaged the cruciate ligament in her back knee and the vet had to do a knee reconstruction. It was expensive, but she was my cat. Then the day before my birthday, last year, we were having a celebratory dinner as I had just been offered my first paid job in forever as I had always been a stay at home mum. Jewie was eating a piece of fish and then walked up the hallway. When she came back, she was dragging her leg. We took her to the vets the next day and found out she had broken her hip. And the knee that had been repaired was full of arthritis. They could amputate but she wouldn't be able to get around at all and still be in pain. We had no choice but to put her to sleep. I still miss my Jewie and think of her everyday.

Dom, you will know when the time is right to make the decision. And you will know that it will be the right thing to do.

Bev

Huggles 4 Unka Dom n ur 2 dogs

Dom I'm going through the same thing with my 12 year old retriever right now. She's having a really tough time going up and down the stairs and we think this might be the year that we have to put her to sleep. She's an awesome dog, she's loyal as hell and loves everyone, but she's starting to get to old to do anything athletic. She's been sleeping a lot more then usual lately and it's getting tough on me. I can't remember not having her. The earliest childhood memory I have is bringing her home in a box when she was 7 weeks old. Anyways, I know what you're going through. Good luck with her

Growing up, we always had dogs (usually two or three at once) since we had a decent sized piece of property. Our best dogs have always been Labs. We usually have had Chocolate ones, but now we have a female Chocolate and a male Black lab. Sadly, purebreed dogs often have medical problems and a previous chocolate lab of ours had epilepsy. We got the dog in the mid-90's. Well, about three years back, on Christmas morning, he had a really bad seizure. You could tell he just went totally brain dead and was in terrible pain. It was awful. Since it was Christmas and all, we couldn't get a hold of any local vets for help so we put him down ourselves. It was so heartbreaking... it was enough to make me seriously consider never owning an animal again. We were pretty traumatized for a while, but its better now. Anytime you have a beloved pet with medical problems, its always a tender subject. You have to do what you think is best and love them as much as you can while they are alive.

wow i dont envy you at all dom. thats a hard position to be in.

when i was 4 we got our first dog--a very large black doberman named demon. he was a very good guard dog--if anyone so much as moved too fast around my brother or i he would be right there inbetween us and whoever else was there. i also have faint memories of this dog babysitting cousins still in diapers on a blanket in the yard. anytime baby would stray from the blanket, demon would grab them by the diaper and pull them back onto the blanket. i was only 11 when he had to be put down due to arthriris of the spine.

we had several other dogs, another doberman, a black lab, and a mutt over the next few years,but none of theose stand out in my mind very much. i think most of them ran away or something stupid like that.

then around 1993 my mom got a 6 week old pup that was 1/2 rottweiler, 1/2 blue tick coon hound. this dog was the smartest dog i've ever known(and the most spoiled--in my family there has never been another dog that had her own chair in the living room). she would let you attach a sled to her collar and pull all 3 of my step-sibs around the fields every winter. now that may not seem very smart, but get this-abby(that was her name) would not listen while she was outside. you could yell at her and she'd act like she didnt even hear you. then i figured out that this dog would do ANYTHING just for her favorite toy(a golf ball). once i figured that out, all i had to do was put a golf ball in my pocket before going outside,(making sure she knew it was there), and she would stay right at my side and listen to anything i would tell her. all it took was the bribe of knowing she would get her favorite toy for a few hours and she would do anything to get it.

sadly, she developed arthritus in her back hips and had a hard time walking for the last 2 years of her life. luckily, we were never faced with the decision to put her down just due to her stiffness in her legs. she was outside and the vet thinks a tumor popped internally, because she just laid down and refused to move anymore. then there was no choice but to have her put down, and i still miss that dog more than anything.

now, i'm finding the downside of having an intelligent dog. when you have a smart dog and then have to go back to having a dog with normal intelligence, it's disheartening. as much as i try with zack(8 mos, 1/2 black lab, 1/2 chow), he is just stupid. he doesnt listen to a word you say, and he chases his tail for hours on end if you dont stop him. not to mention his face is all scratched to hell because he wont learn not to bite the cats, and they do defend themselves.

now for a situation more like you have-- my bro and i were never allowed to have cats when we were young, because our dad didnt like them. however, we had our doberman demon at the time, and he found a little black kitten living under our front porch and made a friend out of it. (this was 1985) so my bro took the cat inside and hid her in the basement for about a week, until my dad asked why we never let the cat out of the basement. my mom was shocked to say the least that we didnt have to hide tha cat anymore and we could keep her.

and then about 8 years later, when my dad went to play with the other fellons in prison, i thought i'd never see that cat again. but then about 3 years after that(1996) my grandma(on my dads side whom i dont talk too) called and told me to come and get my cat or she was going to the pound. needless to say i was surprised to find she was still alive even. so after not having tha cat for 3 years and thnking she was gone, i got her back and she lived to the ripe old age of 18 before we decided that she had to be put down. she was so old and frail that she couldnt fight the other cats for food anymore, and she was losing weight and having issues holding things in. but after all that had happened to that poor cat in her lifetime, i literally could not do it. my mom couldn't either, so my step-dad was very wonderful about it and volunteered to take her for her final ride.

so just know that when it's time, you will know, and if you cant do it yourself, i hope a friend or family member who isnt as attached will help you out.

also this may not help at all, but my great-grandma on my mom's side was an original founding member of the AKC. she raised dogs until my mom was 18 before she retired, and according to my grandma, the euthanasia process is very peaceful. you can even hold them if you wish and they just relax into nothing till they can feel no pain anymore. i know it may seem that they arent in pain, but 1 way to tell if they are is to give them an 81mg aspirin a day and see if it improves leg function. if they seem better after a few days of that, then there is some pain they are feeling. but if the aspirin makes a big difference, add it into the daily diet and enjoy your dog for another year or two.

ok im done now--i havent thought about abby and spooky since they left and now im all crying and sniffling and blowing my nose

I've been watching people and dogs approaching death . . . I think there comes a moment when there is a shift, and if you're sensitive you can feel it, when the agenda no changes for the organism: one one side of the shift, the agenda is how to stay alive, and on the other side of the shift, the agenda is how to die.

I think you'll know that for your old dog, and I think you'll know whether he needs help with it.

On a more lively note:

"With Trust" is delightful. The best thing about it is the humor -- it's really hard to write humor, the timing has to be right, and deadpan humor is even harder.

Now I want to start all my conversations with my family with "I'm Lucy, and I . . ."

(parenting class indeed)

I've been trying to add a comment on hetero online romance fiction. I think it tends to be less interesting too, and I think it's because the details of the outcome are not in question. Maybe. It's not that I have anything against people getting married at some point or another if they want to. I mean, well, I did and all, and that's been okay enough. But dramatically, I have to say it's just not as interesting as a situation with less defined upshots.

Hey Dom,

Well I definitely don't mean to criticize anyone else's decisions, and indeed that decision was made regarding many of our pets when I was growing up, but personally speaking I don't really go in for euthanasia. It's a very complicated issue as far as I'm concerned. I'm big into animal (and human) rights. I mostly think that if someone (person or animal) is suffering alot and is beyond hope of recovery, then yes they should have the right to decide if they want to die. Therefore I mostly don't take exception with euthanasia for people as long as (1)There's virtually no chance of recovery (2)They are suffering and (3)They're mentally sound and able to make the decision themselves. When those three conditions aren't met everything gets very hazy. Obviously animals can never make the decision themselves, and as their guardians it falls to us. I would never ever presume to question someone's decision to put a beloved pet down, or to remove a family member from lifesupport. In the end you have to do what your heart and mind tell you are correct.

My personal views are that I find it unlikely I'd ever make the decision to voluntarily end my life. I consider myself an active, energetic, intelligent person and I get quite alot out of life. But I think even if I lost most of my mobility there'd still be tons of things I'd enjoy doing. Reading, talking, movies, music, games. I mean it would suck not being able to run around but I'd still have a reason to go on. Suffering is such a complicated concept. What's unendurable for some is quite tolerable for others. If we're talking pure pain factor, and again just for myself, I'd say chances are I'd just chose to take large doses of a powerful med. and/or try to distract myself from it. Of course I've never been in that position so I don't really know, and I would honour and be very supportive if a close friend or family member made that decision. Across the board though I think it should be the same for animals as it is for people. If it's legal for animals it should be legal for people (and while I'm reluctant about both I believe the right should exist).

Anyway I think you're right about your dog. If she seems to still be enjoying her life you should let her continue to live it. I know I'd be ticked off if I were an old man who couldn't climb the staires anymore and someone just decided for me that it was "my time". I agree with the consensus; you'll know when(and if) you ever need to do it.

All the best,

Kevin

p.s. I haven't read WT 4 yet, I'm really looking forward to it, just going to grab some dinner first

Hetero romances always end in weddings!?

I guess it's been a while since I've read any. But isn't that a little, uh, antiquated?

BTW thanks for mentioning "Unrequited." I hadn't read it before but I was really impressed with it and Matt's other stories too.

Hetero romances always end in weddings!?

 

I guess it's been a while since I've read any. But isn't that a little, uh, antiquated?

 

BTW thanks for mentioning "Unrequited." I hadn't read it before but I was really impressed with it and Matt's other stories too.

Not literally weddings, usually, but they usually end with the couple agreeing to wed. The old saying is the difference between a comedy and a tragedy is that a tragedy ends in a funeral and a comedy ends in a wedding. That's left over from when comedy and tragedy was all there was (Greek drama, about which you now know almost everything I do).

I've been taking an older lady (I can't say "old lady," can I, since that would probably have to include me!) to her hairdresser's on Fridays. I go to a barber myself. Anyway, while I wait for her, first I walk her dog and then I read the books they keep for the customers, which are mostly romances and mysteries with a smattering of literature. I've noticed that modern romances are different -- more variety, more complicated, more progressive in some ways. But there's always a female and a male who end up together affirming family values. Online ones, though I'm not sure, tend to have more out-there sex and less complicated story lines.

Yes, Matt's one of the writers on my "always read" list.

Hetero romances always end in weddings!?

 

I guess it's been a while since I've read any. But isn't that a little, uh, antiquated?

 

BTW thanks for mentioning "Unrequited." I hadn't read it before but I was really impressed with it and Matt's other stories too.

 

Not literally weddings, usually, but they usually end with the couple agreeing to wed. The old saying is the difference between a comedy and a tragedy is that a tragedy ends in a funeral and a comedy ends in a wedding. That's left over from when comedy and tragedy was all there was (Greek drama, about which you now know almost everything I do).

 

I've been taking an older lady (I can't say "old lady," can I, since that would probably have to include me!) to her hairdresser's on Fridays. I go to a barber myself. Anyway, while I wait for her, first I walk her dog and then I read the books they keep for the customers, which are mostly romances and mysteries with a smattering of literature. I've noticed that modern romances are different -- more variety, more complicated, more progressive in some ways. But there's always a female and a male who end up together affirming family values. Online ones, though I'm not sure, tend to have more out-there sex and less complicated story lines.

Yes, Matt's one of the writers on my "always read" list.

Oops. i didn't mean all straight fic. But, it was a reoccurring theme with this particular author. The built up would work towards an engagement or wedding, and I lost interest. But, oddly, it all inspired me without me even realizing it.