My husband works for the post office and on one March evening in 2004 he called me from work and asked if I would speak to a co-worker of his regarding a dog. We already had 3 dogs, so my husband was a bit scared to ask me himself. His co-worker told me that his elderly neighbor had recently died and had a dog. Apparently the deceased owner was found about 2 days after his death with Rascal (greyhound/lab mix) by his side. The man’s son, while taking care of his estate would come by daily for about 10 minutes and walk Rascal, but eventfully would be taking him to the shelter. Mikey(co-worker) took the dog home, but was not able to care for him either. He knew my husband and I loved dogs and asked if we would take Rascal.

After hearing the story, I said of course we’d take him! We were told he was 9-years-old, only to find out later by his vet that he was 12-years-old. My husband always playfully accused Rascal of lying on his application! He was the sweetest dog and a couch potato much like my husband.

In April 2007 he became sick with what appeared to be stomach cancer, he was 15-years-old. We changed his diet and he was much better for about 3-months. He became very ill again in July 2007 and his health greatly deteriorated. I too looked for the answer of when do you put your dog down. I finally came across a simple saying from an article on the Internet, which stated, “when your dog can no longer be a dog, it is his time”. I called his vet, who encouraged me to put him through evasive testing and I simply stated to him that Rascal could no longer live the life of a dog. He then agreed to put Rascal down.

We spent the last night with Rascal with our now 5 other dogs, which came up to him periodically and gave him kisses. My husband and I went through the entire process with Rascal. He was ready to go I believe and went to pride and dignity. We hope he is with his original owner now and that we will eventually meet up with him again! We loved him dearly.

Christine from IL