Originally posted by atupdate Norm, my thoughts are with you and Tess. We had to make the same decision back in 2012 for our 14 year old lab mix. We started fostering shortly after that because we couldn't decide if we wanted another dog. We adopted our first foster and have had a steady stream of visitors since.
How are your other pups doing? I'm sure they notice that he is no longer there.
Tim
Tripper takes these things the hardest, after Kenzie died he was depressed for 6 months. Dreamer was his alpha for two years... the two of them hardly interacted after that. But there were lot's of times Tripper and Dreamer ran through the woods shoulder to shoulder, and still would have if Dreamer could have kept up with him these last 3 years. So he's the one with the depressed look on his face this morning. Tia is just a pup, Misty, it's hard to tell, Dreamer was never really much of a part of her life except she was afraid to walk by him, so her life will be less stressful. He was already failing by the time we got Misty, she never knew him a full part of the pack. The last 3 years he's been a part timer. He'd go on a short walk in the morning just for him, but he missed everything long or difficult, the walks the other dogs loved.
The last time Dreamer was really able to keep up with the pack on outings was 2011.
Since then he'd always had special consideration if we could manage it, or was left home with a sitter. He was 12 then, and made it to 16 years old. Dreamer outlived 3 packs, and was on his 4th... more than 9 other dogs. In the 6 years I've known him, 4 other dogs, all younger than him have died. And he was 10 years old and had outlived a couple packs before I met him.
When I first met Tess 6 years ago, she told me he would probably die soon. All her other dogs did, (Pearl, Rudy, Yoda), Dreamer just kept trucking. If there were doggy old age homes I'm sure he could have made it another year or two. His needs just got to the point where two people in one house, even retired, weren't enough to care for him.