My dog is 14 and I am completely aware we may have to get him put down soon. I can't explain how crushed I am about this, I've had since I was 3 and I love him to bits I don't even remember what life was like without him. He's an idiot sometimes and is always rooting around in the garbage, barking at nothing and generally being irratating but I love him with all my heart nonetheless.

That being said, he is very sick, has a few different diseases causing him respiratory, urinary, digestive and mobillity problems. He has arthritis, cushings disease, and a sinus infection. If the pain ever becomes too severe for him to function happily I will put him down. I will not be happy about this but I love him and if his pain is that great then I think it is the right choice to make. Animals are perfectly capable of losing the will to live, my mother's cat simply stopped eating because he was so sick. We had to put him down, and my poor mother was crushed. It is so ignorant to say that owners do not have love in their hearts when they put down pets that are in huge amounts of pain. Its such a hard and grievous decision to make, how else could they do it?

For now I am just going to enjoy the time I have left with my dog. He's not dead yet, after all.