After 17+ years of treats, walks, chasing rabbits, and barking at leaves, Layla has crossed over the rainbow bridge.
We rescued her from an Amish puppy mill and she had her quirks from the first few weeks living in a shoebox, we always said she went on a rumspringa and never returned but always held her animosity towards automobiles.
The last few months were a challenge, she was mostly blind, mostly deaf, and had dementia but she would still start running whenever we put her on the grass in the backyard. Last night she made a yip sound like she did when she was a puppy and I knew what that meant. She just wanted to be held, and she passed away in our arms, knowing she was loved all the way to the end. She was my first dog and I am absolutely heartbroken.

I had to write something somewhere, so the board has done one good thing today.

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Sorry cory. That sucks man.

Best wishes you to you and your family

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'm sorry bro. I know that's a hard day. I'm feeling it with you.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

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Not a mult.

Sorry to hear this. 17 years seems like a good run, and sounds like she had a great family to watch over her. Always a hard thing to go through.


We have an elder dog at home as well, so already starting to spoil him more than usual.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

My Dad's beagle is 15, and I swear Deni$ and either BigW or Furious were talking about having aged canines yesterday as well. So sorry to read about your loss Psycory...

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

Thanks all, it's been rough today. We still have to tell the kids, didn't want to tell them as they were going to school. I'm not looking forward to that. I mean we knew it was coming but over the weekend she just went downhill real fast. She had a vet appointment today for a check in and we thought that was going to be when we were going to have to make a decision. My wife is taking it harder than I am because she was Layla's favorite. She stayed at her side whenever she was home.

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I am very sorry

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

The Amish run puppy mills?

Good for you for rescuing.

Sorry to hear, Cory. Hang in there!

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Yes, they are notorious for it. When we rescued her at 10 weeks, she thought she was a golden haired dog because she was soaked in urine because they never took her out of the box. Crate training was a real challenge.

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Very sorry. Always tough.

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Sorry, Cory. It sounds like you gave her a great life.

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Sorry for your loss Psycory. What are the signs to look for when a dog has dementia?

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The vet said our Boston had doggie dementia when he started routinely barking in the middle of the night about nothing.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

When they start barking at any Muslim walking down the street.

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I feel for you having to tell your kids. That is going to be really hard.

This is the main reason we have never got a dog. One of the toughest days of my life was when the dog I got growing up died while I was in college. I just couldn't do that again. And I know my daughters would be an absolute mess.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Always difficult to lose a pet, condolences. But if you can get any dog to the age of 17 that just means you've given that animal a great life, and by definition they have done the same for you.

David Dow is a prominent death penalty attorney in Texas. He wrote a book called Lessons I Learned From Dying. When I heard him speak about it he said the only parts that he couldn't read were the passages about his dog dying.

On this, and not to hijack this thread but of our two dogs we are most certainly going to lose one to cancer in the next 2-3 months, and out other dog is 12, so although she's wonderfully healthy, she's 12.

When we learned of out other dog's cancer prognosis we had to tell Two Post and Three Post. Two Post is great with our dogs and with all dogs in general. It's one of the things I love most about him, how kind and gentle is he with dogs. Obviously he was devastated. Like he had to be removed from class the next day because he was so emotional about it.

I did ask him two questions:

1. "Would you rather have mom and dad wait till the last minute to tell you Katie was dying or tell you now so you can spend extra time with her?"

Answer = Glad you told me now so I can spend time with her.

2. "Would you rather not have any more dogs so you don't have to go through the experience of losing a pet but never get to have any more dogs as pets"

Answer = Having a dog knowing that you are going to outlive the dog is better than never having a dog.

So while it was incredibly difficult, I think my guy really understood how much the benefits outweigh the loss.

Didn't know that you were the person being asked Ballpark

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Bark at walls, They start walking in circle/pacing (it's a way to calm anxiety). General confusion.

The kids took it better than I did. I know they wanted to say goodbye but when we get her ashes back we will do something for her. No, I will not be making them into a diamond.

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All dogs die after a really long time

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

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Thank you and that has to be tough for you and your family. 17 years is a damn good run.

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He starts arguing with everyone in the politics section if a sports radio message board.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

exactly. very sorry to hear.

It gets tougher the longer they live. We have a friend who has a cat that just turned 23. She’s gonna be a mess when he passes.

Condolences to you, Psy.

Better that than concerning himself with whose arguing with "everyone" in the politics section of a (reputed to be) sports message board I suppose.

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With the dementia thing, I think it's just one of those things that becomes obvious. Our Grey Weim clearly had some from of it before we finally put him down. You could just tell there were times when he was completely unaware of whare / what he was doing.

My condolences, Psycory. It's never easy.

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i had 2 pass in the last 5 years or so....1 basically died suddenly, she had a tumor but was basically 100% up until the last week, then just deteriorated rapidly. The other one was just a quality of life, her hips gave out so it was getting harder for her to walk. I think that one was unquestionably harder since it involved having to make a decision...like ok you're gonna die today!
The other case there was no decision to make.