Said goodbye to my old boy tonight.

[PermanentlyDizzy]

He would have been 16 and a half on the first of May.

We had been working with the vet and monitoring him closely for a while and saw a clear decline starting on Monday. This morning he was much more off his legs than usual and just not happy. He has had cuddles and loves off everyone all day, been fed gluten free hobnobs by ds1 and had an afternoon tea of his favourite steamed salmon steak.

He was able to walk into the vets himself, no distress or panic, just a calm, quiet goodbye. I’m relieved we could give him that, rather than it being an emergency situation where he was distressed.

It feels like he’s been with us forever, the ds’s can’t remember life without him, dd has never known life without him and now our home doesn’t have a dog for the first time in 33 years.

(I’m usually hard as nails me )

I feel your pain. We lost our guy just before Christmas and I miss him so much.

We got him when it just the two of us and he'd been with us through house moves, miscarriages, kids, new jobs, bereavements. There's a quote that goes something like "not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own" and it rings very true.

That's the trouble with dogs though isn't it? All we can do when they go is take comfort from the fact that we did the best for them always, even at the end, and be grateful for the years we had.

@PermanentlyDizzy I am so sorry. The oldies are just the best and leave a huge empty space when they leave us that is so hard to deal with.

The love and care that your beautiful dog had whilst with you is all a dog can ever need

I'm so sorry. We have spoken before on my thread. I really hope you are all ok and know that you did what you thought was the best thing and he left in a peaceful and dignified way. We have just booked the appointment for 2 weeks today, I really feel your pain.xx

@Acupofteaplease, thank you. We are doing ok. Things still feel very odd and the house doesn’t feel like home, but we will get there. The dc are being incredibly mature about it and I am so proud of how ds1 is coping in particular. It’s actually lovely the way they have been supporting each other.

It absolutely was the right thing to do, no matter how hard it was, he was declining and we really didn’t want him to suffer or have a sudden emergency.

As the days go on, I’m realising just how much our life had changed to meet his needs. Things like, we used to keep the living room curtains closed till lunch time, as he would be restless if he didn’t sleep until then and the sunlight would disturb him. I would turn my coffee coaster over to the cork side when he was asleep, as he was quite deaf, but sudden sharp noises like putting a cup down would wake him and we used to leave the living room door slightly ajar too, as the door handle would wake him when people came downstairs. Certain times of days are triggers, as he had a complicated care and meds routine and my body clock seems to have absorbed the times I would need to do certain things with/for him. Same with ds2, who used to set his snuffle mat up for him every afternoon. I keep finding myself going to do things automatically, then realising I don’t need to anymore.

I am so sorry to hear you are having to say goodbye soon too. Cherish every moment of the next two weeks and I’m sending you much love and strength. xx

I’m so very sorry for your loss. I’ve been through it, more than once, it’s so very hard. You did the right thing and you have taken on the suffering. By which I mean, you have stopped his suffering and now it has become yours. He is at peace now, he’s OK. He had a happy, fulfilled life with you and that’s the best he could have have had.
X

@Acupofteaplease

I'm so sorry. We have spoken before on my thread. I really hope you are all ok and know that you did what you thought was the best thing and he left in a peaceful and dignified way. We have just booked the appointment for 2 weeks today, I really feel your pain.xx

My heart goes out to you. I know you will be strong in the knowledge that’s you are doing the best for your beloved companion. X

sorry for your loss- you too @crimblecrumbles.