My cousin had her dog pts last Sunday. Boston was a 16 year old chocolate lab. He was a rescue dog and lived 15 of those 16 years with my cousin and her family. The past few years he'd been slowing down. He was just a big old man. But no pain or health problems A couple years ago the vet wanted her to put him on a diet and sent them home with diet food. Well they decided that at that point he'd already lived past his expected years and why not let him have his treats when he wanted them.
He'd get the occasional tooth falling out and his hearing was mostly gone. But he remained in good health. Amazing !
Like any old man he had a little trouble in the southern regions and Lisa spent a lot of time with the spray bottle in her hand wiping up little yellow spots on the kitchen floor but he was happy to be around his family and lie there with his fur in a big puddle on the floor.
He enjoyed his food, his walks, (slower and shorter) his family, and a hunk of cheese now and then.
He wasn't the easiest to live with since he was a big slow moving guy who couldn't hear you calling him and couldn't get out of the way in under an hour, and when he did there was usually something there you could slip on. But he was just a VERY senior doggie.
Then a few months back they were leaving on vacation and the night before they were to take him to be boarded he had some sort of episode. The vet told them that it was a stroke and that he would probably need to be put down. But they didn't want to do that without at least seeing if he would recover first. So the vet made them sign the papers before they left after promising that he would at least give Boston a chance.
The next morning they got a call. Instead of the bad news they though they were going to get they were told that he was remarkable. Alert, enjoying his food, and getting around a bit.
When they came home they brought him home and Lisa said that one day he even forgot how old he was and ran down the street like a young pup.
Amazing !!
So they took good care of him the way every senior deserves, pretty certain that he would break some kind of record for world's oldest dog.
But last week he began to show signs of pain. He fell on the porch steps and was too weak to get up. He had constant diarrhea and cried throughout the night. On Sunday morning they took him to the emergency vet, prepared for the worst.
At that point they knew he would have no quality of life.
My cousin wanted to wait until the next day so he could go to his own vet and not pass in unfamiliar surroundings. Her husband made the call to do it that day and spare him another night of suffering.
The last time I saw Boston was two weeks ago at a birthday party. And just as he had done at every birthday he waited for the Happy Birthday song and when it was over he chimed in with a tail wag and a few hearty barks.
He was huge and gentle and as sweet a dog as ever there was. I don't know why someone gave this guy up but they missed out on a great dog.
Ok, he wasn't my dog but I feel sad, and I miss him, and I just wanted to put a few lines here about a great rescue dog and the people who understood how to keep loving a senior dog and how to know when to let go.
