sam

Sam, our dog, is definintely getting older and it's getting sadder. He's not even eating enough for his body weight at this point and a lot of times what he does eat doesn't stay down. He's getting painfully thin.

I find it really distressing because sometimes he seems to be happy and doing well but that is happening less and less. When we took him to the vet she said it was our decision. We know that, the problem is that we don't want to end his life prematurely but we also don't want him to be in any pain or discomfort.

He also keeps falling down a lot now, his back legs give out when he's walking or if he needs to go down stairs. And his senility/Alzheimer's is definitely getting worse. After 14 years with our family we've become very attached and I'm discovering it's really hard to be the one to make that decision. In the past it's always been someone else who decided.

At this point since he still has happy moments and doesn't appear to be in pain we're not ready but we know that time is not too far off. We just need to love him as much as we can and realize that not allowing him to be in pain will be another expression of our love for him.