To think that its just not bloody fair!

[LEMmingaround]

Dogs only live on average 12(?) years? This means i have sobbed my heart out already four times over lost dogs. It is genuine grief.

Am just sitting with one of my JRTs snuggled on my lap, he snuggles right into me - he was a rescue dog and about six months when he got him. I love him so much (as i do JRT1 who is 8) JRT2 is about 2 now - he was snuggling right up to me and putting his head into the crook of my neck, he does this lots, its like he can't get close enough he is a wuss and doesn't like being cold.

It then dawned on me that one day i'll be making that awful decision that most people who have ever owned a dog has had to make. For both of them :(

It is simply not fair - that is all.

(yes i know there are worse things going on the world and im getting upset over something that is, please God, a fair few years away, although i lost my last dog when he was only 4 to bone cancer, and its all a bit selfish and pathetic, but i honestly felt sick to my stomach at the thought of the inevitable)

I have to say that this thread is the biggest argument against euthanasia ever! If we find it this hard to have our dog PTS imagine how much harder it would be if it was your mum!

Nellie is fourteen. Her eyes are getting cloudy and she spends most days on the bed fast asleep.

She's still a little madam though.

It hurts. I have no idea how or why we do it.

Mamma, i actually completely disagree - i made the decision for all of my dogs, it was the hardest things i ever had to do - i still cry over each and every one of them. It was the hardest, but kindest thing. I watched my father slowly disappear,taken by alzheimers and i would have made the same decision for him that i did for my dogs and know that would have been what he chose. Of course, whilst i am in favour of human euthanasia, it would be, as it should the individuals own decision so no one would have to suffer the guilt. There is guilt, but you know you are doing what is right - i used to be a vet nurse and the thing that stands out for me more than anything with PTS is the relief on the animals face when the pain stops.

I think we may be thinking al

Al

Along the same lines! Perhaps living wills are the best way!

I held my beautiful 13 yr old cat while he was put to sleep - he had incurable cancer and was so thin. We got him when he was 7 weeks old and he was our baby before we had our son. It broke my heart to have to make that decision but at the same time I'm so grateful I could end his pain for him and he didn't have to suffer on and on for days or weeks of not being able to eat.

It made me wish I could have the same choice for myself if I was that ill rather than be left to drag on.

Our lab has just had her 14th birthday. I know she wont make 15 and my heart will break as she was my Dads. His last words to me were "Look after my dog." That was 11 years ago and it still makes me sob thinking about it. I couldn't stop the cancer but this I could still do.

My JRT is nearly 17, - I cannot bear to think of being without her, she has been the most faithful little friend I could ever have wished for.

I know I have to face up to losing her sooner rather than later, but I hope that when the time comes I don't have to make the sad decision to end her life, I wish for her that one day, she just curls up, goes to sleep happily in her little bed and doesn't wake up.

It's heartbreaking but so so worth it. I grew up with our dog and my mum said she knew I was going to say the dog had died when I rang her, because I wouldn't sound so upset if it had been my nanna.

I had to sign to have three pets PTS last year in the space of 6 months. We now have 2 cats and I am dreading having to do it again and it has put me off having more, but I know I will. The pain is worth the years of love.

Awful Baker isn't it. I also feel the cost of it was a shock and compounded my upset at the time. So expensive.

They never just die of old age, the bastards. They leave it to us to make the final bloody decision.

Of course on the upside.. The tortoise may be 45 but they live as long as humans so I'm planning on the two of us going together!

riskit - one of my pets had to be PTS put of hours and I was charged £99.98 .

The same breed of animal, in a normal appointment - £7!

My dog will be 15 soon. She cannot go.

I have a 13 year dog with stroke/cancer /age related illness

And 2 16 year old cats

And last month I put down my best friend who followed me around for 16 years. I have literally never loved anyone or anything so much

I have aged so much in the last 3 years as I've put down a geriatric pet a year - and obviously with the above
3 I have more to come.

My lovely cranky old girl was nearly 19 when I finally had to make the decision to take her to the vet. She'd stopped eating, stopped purring, couldn't find a comfortable position to sit or sleep on our laps. She'd gone pretty deaf, and I suspect, had lost quite a few of her catty marbles (she used to shout at the skirting boards periodically. She also enjoyed sneaking up on people and miaowing really loudly behind them - no volume control since she was deaf).
I cried so much I couldn't drive home; my husband did.

Since we were moving overseas, we decided no more cats.
This lasted two months, when we got our two Burmese girls, who have moved overseas with us at fearsome expense.

Baker, me too.

My beautiful old greyhound is 12 and I have had her from a puppy. She is now blind in one eye and her back legs are starting to go. Ideally I want her to go peacefully in her sleep cockroaching on the sofa after a huge meal of chicken. I am getting more teary more frequently just thinking about what must happen sooner rather than later. Julian Clary said it was one of God's cruellest tricks - to give dogs such a short life span.

I still feel guilt over my girl . Even though she was old and sore I miss her so much and find it very hard that she was PTS.
I don't think I will ever own another dog again , I have found the grief from losing her so hard x