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Just got a call from my vet. My best friend, my 13-year-old Labrador, has fast-spreading cancer. The vet evaluates him as too old for any aggressive treatment and we are going along with strong steroids and pain management. This won’t cure him but might give him quality-of-life and give the family maybe 2-3 weeks to reinforce to the dog how important, how loved and how central he is to us.

This really hurts, but I was thinking last evening as we walked a very shortened version of his favorite route that this might be our last walk along here. When he lay down a couple of times and gave me that look "I want to go further dad, just give me some time to rest...".

My sons – who both lived here when he came as a puppy but are now grown up and moved out – suggested we get the vet to visit Friday a week from now so we can put him to sleep at home, surrounded by his family.

I don’t feel bad about making that decision – I have always known that one day I would have to do so. I know with total purity that our decision will be based on his best interest. I keep in mind a quote I heard once about no animal dying of old age in nature, but that they either starve because they can’t get food due to age, or are too old to escape being eaten.

My Labrador will depart with minimal pain, surounded with love, having known nothing but love, respect and care for all his +13 dog-years.

We have a spot seleced in the yard for him, between two trees and a shrub he loved to lie at. A bit like Sheldon Cooper becasue that spot had the right amount of shade, the best breeze, and a veiw on all the people walking by.

Doesn’t change that this really hurts.

[This message edited by SI Staff at 3:54 PM, Thursday, June 5th]

(((((Bigger))))

My sweet girl (black lab LuLu) left us coming up on 2 yrs ago, just 3 mos shy of 15. She was my son's dog. We got her for him and she stayed in his room at night and even when he worked nights she would sleep with him during the day.

She too was diagnosed with a cancer on her pancreas and was able to live her best life for about another year after diagnosis and most of that was happy good days. She waited to say goodbye when H was in Canada early season duck hunting. My son was able to be with her to say goodbye when it was time. He had of course long ago moved out and had a human baby of his own. I made a shadow box with her collar footprint, ashes and a lacrosse ball her favorite fetch toy.

So all this to say I get it and it sucks. Take some time to feel the feels and be kind to yourself.

Pets are a source of pure love. And one of the great injustices of our existence is that their lives are far too short.
Your plans sound lovely and just right. And there is not much you can do except maybe take the day off and allow yourself to grieve fully.

I can bring myself to tears just thinking about losing one of my pets. The pain is real.

So sorry your buddy is sick, but glad you are thinking of him and his comfort. What a lucky pup to have such a caring family.

(((Bigger and family)))
So very sorry.

Hurts so much just thinking about this loss, doesn't it?

3 years ago, we lost our dear old Lab/Shepherd/Alaskan Sled Dog/? to a cancerous tumor that ruptured suddenly with nobody including the vet having any idea he had been that bad (hemangeosarcoma). The day my younger brother died, we'd spent hours in the truck traveling to the hospital for my brother and I simply thought the long trip may have been too much time sitting in the truck for the old guy. But he just grew weaker the next day, and I so know that look you got.

I always said I will never force the issue of ending my dog's life for a creature that loves to live as much as he did. I guess it was a mercy but it hurt that he died with my arm around him on Thanksgiving morning, after his paws had gradually grown cold and his breathing had became labored. He refused all water and food but he never whimpered once, so the vet assured us he wasn't in "pain" yet he was out of it for the last 24 hours. If he hadn't gone that way, I think having a vet come to the house is way better for everybody.

Living on a farm, we buried him on the hill between the barn he loved to hang out at with his Dad and my garden that he loved to mark his paw prints in, soon as I tilled up a raised bed. That way he could "keep an eye on everything" per H. However, since he left, the groundhogs have been multiplying around the barnyard. I know that would bother him. Anyway, there isn't a day goes by I don't miss him and really long to have him back in my life. Best Dog Ever. (((Bigger)))

I just wanted to say I’m sorry he’s sick.

I have a cat who is getting old and I cry just thinking of him leaving me.

From your message I can see how much you love him, he was very lucky to have you as a dad.

This sucks just so, so bad. I'm so sorry.

But he will be comfortable being around his known home and people for his final days, and for that you've given him a great gift.

They leave such holes in our hearts when they leave us.

I have an old girl who is going to be 13 in a month, and my breed's average longevity is 9.5 so the writing is on the wall although she's doing quite well for her age atm. Knock on wood.

As a former breeder, and someone involved in dog shows and clubs and trials and whatnot, I have a lot of dog friends and obviously we have a lot of conversations about this subject. One woman whose opinion I respected a lot always said "a day too soon is better than a day too late." She meant that, in her opinion, it was better to give that loved companion the best day or week you could and let them go much as you are describing in your plans. Better that than a crisis of pain and confusion for the dog.

That said, I'm almost more comfortable with a crisis of sorts (as long as it wasn't precipitated by a long journey of pain) where something happens, my back is against the wall, there is no other decision to make than to let them go. For me, it takes away my second guessing about whether I could have/should have/would have tried this, that or another and kept things going. Which is where I always end up when I've had to make "the decision" for an old or sick dog that is getting along in some fashion but not living their full quality life, kwim?

I always told my puppy owners that the good news is that your dog doesn't know he has cancer. Shower him with attention and love for the time you have chosen to have left. He will love that, and please know that you are taking his pain and making it your own.

So sorry, Bigger.

Even when you think you're prepared, you aren't. We had to put my son's dog down last summer and she'd been with us for a long time. Such a sweetheart and a Chihuahua who changed my mind about them being nuisance dogs.

I've never had a Lab, but have friends who do and wouldn't own any other dog.

Your plan sounds like a good plan.

I'm sorry for your impending loss.

Aww, this has me in tears, Bigger. For you, for your pup, for myself two decades ago when I had to do the same thing, and for my 13 year old lab mix and the limited time we have left together.

My warmest sympathy is with you.