Putting down the family pet

[Gail]

Dad was telling us tonight about a collie dog he had that helped him with the cows on the farm. The dog's name was Gunnar.

Gunnar aged as all dogs do, and finally he had arthritis so bad that he was whimpering every day with the pain. Dad knew what he had to do...

One day he took one last walk with Gunnar, and you could really feel his pain as he told us that Gunnar knew what was up. Dad took the rifle and put Gunnar out of his pain just like the boy on Old Yeller. In those days that was considered the humane thing to do.

Many of us have gone through a similar experience, of having to make that last hard decision.

Tell us about yours.

[Liz]

This is a depressing thread. Growing up that was how it was done, Dad would take the old animal out into the country and shoot it. However, the one that stuck with me, was my cat, we had just moved to the country and my cat was an indoor/outdoor cat, and the neighbors' German Shepherd left his yard and got her. My dad "put her out of her misery", and then he did something surprising. See dad didn't necessarily like cats, he is more of a dog person, so what he did next was out of character for him.

He went and had a chat with the neighbor. I can't post what he said to the neighbor, needless to say we never saw the German Shepherd again. My dad is not a demonstrative man, he has never said he loved me, but when he does stuff like that, I know he does.

P.S. the two cats I have now, have never been outside.

[Gail]

It is hard, for sure. When Dad told the story both his and my hubby's eyes misted up.

But I am encouraged when I see evidences of tenderness and compassion in people.

[Gerr]

Our head elder had to put down one of his dogs that was badly injured from an accident. His half brother missed him so much that a week later it too died. My eyes became watery when I heard it.

[JoeMo]

We just put down our beloved Austrailian Shepherd. He was old; and going downhill. We let him out to potty before Thanksgiving during a snowstorm and he wandered off. We couldn't find him; even though we looked all night. The next morning, my daughter and I were putting "Lost Dog" signs around the neighborhood; and praise God, someone drove up with our beloved Harley in their car, looking for the owner!

We took him to the vet and had a bunch of tests done. The vet said he was hypothyroid; and gave us thyroid medication; to no avail. By the week before Christmas, he had gone deaf and blind; and was having seizures. We took him back to the vet, who did more tests. This time, the vet came back and said the low thyroid was a secondary condition. His primary problem was a fast-growing, inoperable brain tumor. So, less than a week before Christmas, we said our tearful good-byes and put him down. I cry again as I write this.

May God give comfort to all those who lose beloved non-human family members!

[Gerr]

When I came to NC almost 7 yrs ago now, I came with two of the most lovable big dogs - a golden retriever and a half rottweiler and half black lab. I got both of them on the same day when they were puppies and bonded very well. Four years ago now, I noticed the retriever had not moved from the same spot in the yard for half a day. I took him to the vet who was very reassuring. The dog died over the weekend and it turned out he had kidney failure. I cried for a few days because I did not even have the chance to hug him good bye. A year later, the other dog started having prolonged, recurrent seizures which the vet could not control. I had to ask him to put the dog down.

[phkrause]

We had a Belgium Shepherd, he was about 10/12 years old. One day I came out of the house to go to work and he was stuck in the bushes, so I yelled at him, and left for work. My wife called me a few hours later and told me that the dog hadn't moved. So I came home and found out that he couldn't move his rear legs. So I carried him to the car and brought him to the vet. They told me that his spine was messed up. So we had to put him down. I cried for a long time. Than we had a Akita/Chow mix, he was about 140 lbs. He got hit by a hit and run driver. He was about 4-6 yrs old. Than we had a Akita/Shepherd mix. He got limes diease and thought he was ok but not the case, we wound up having to put him to rest. The problem with pets is, they become part of the family and since they don't have a long life, so when they pass on its like losing a family member.

[Gail]

Yes, even though it is sad to remember such a loss, in a way these are of the sort of "good kind of sad."

The neat thing is that animals DO have feelings and they can bond with us. Would it be a stretch to say that they love? I think not.

[JoeMo]

Dogs can love, and maybe even have a conscience. Cats tolerate or accomodate. I love my kitty; but I imagine if she got loose, she could fend for herself

I'm not sure cats are truly domesticated animals. But I dearly love my kitty. She communicates with me telepathically. She's definitely "my" kitty. I'm the only one in the family she ever sits with or sleeps with. I will definitely grieve seriously when she dies. She's my baby!

[M. T. Cross]

We used to have an Old English Sheepdog from the time I was about 10 till I was 17. Her name was Sam, though she was most often affectionately called Bimbo.

One day while I was waiting to get into my guitar lesson our next door neighbor came in to buy some guitar strings from my teacher. When he saw me, he gave me his condolences on the death of our dog - I was shocked to say the least! (ironically this is much how I learned of the passing of my mother). When my dad came to pick me up I of course hammered him with questions.

He had been down at our woodpile cutting logs into lengths for the stove when Bimbo started nudging at him with her nose. He thought it odd, because she usually just sat a distance off and watched him. He kind just pushed at her head and kept working away. She did it again and this time he shut off the chainsaw and turned to look at her. He said she was whimpering really hard, frothing at the mouth and convulsing. He went in and called the vet and described her condition. The vet asked him if he had a gun, and when he said he did the vet told him to shoot her as soon as possible. The vet also asked my dad to bring her down for an autopsy. So my dad did as requested and when we got home I helped him load her in the back of the truck. That is a sight I will never forget as her muzzle was pulled back like a rat from the pain she had been in.

Turns out someone had thrown her a piece of meat with a massive dose of slug poison in it. We lived way out in the country and had these old telephone lines that ran on poles past out place. They were no longer in use, but worth a fair bit of money. Someone had been coming up at night and stealing the lines length by length. The best we could figure out after my dad talked to the cops, was that she had been barking at who-ever was doing this so they poisoned her.

At the time my dad owned a medicinal herbal tea company and had a trailer for that down by the road. I sat on the porch of that trailer every night for about a month with his .303 rifle waiting for them to come back for more line. Thankfully they never did.

[Tom Wetmore]

We had a nice gentle collie that got poisoned, we thought perhaps by a neighbor. Symptoms similar to what you described. I just remember her contorted body from the muscle spasms. The vet put her under deep anesthesia as he would have had he been going to do surgery. he said it would relax her spasming muscles and especially her heart muscles so it would still beat properly and so she could breath. She did survive. But what a cruel way to kill an animal.

[Liz]

Speaking of cats, we had a big old tom cat, that came to us as a kitten, he actually asked us for help. So we finished raising him and then he became a mostly outdoor cat, he loved hunting, and he would often leave us our parts of the "kills" on the porch. One night our son was taking out the trash and he ran up and wouldn't let him get off the side walk, nor would he allow our son to come up on the porch. Our son yelled to us that something was wrong. When we turned on the porch light there was a rattlesnake on the front steps. The cat wouldn't let our son get near it, and eventually he lured the snake away and played with it till the snake was exhausted and then killed it. If it hadn't been for that cat our son could have easily been bitten. Needless to say, that cat got tuna for awhile.

I've no idea whatever happened to him, one day he just didn't show up. Another reason why the kitties I have now don't go outside.