Death of a Dog

The death of a dog is a very serious problem to a great many people.Too many otherwise intelligent pet owners simply can't bring them-selves to realize that every life has a limit. When their conscientious veterinarian assures them it is time to say good-by to their pet, instead of taking this advice they say good-by to the veterinarian and take their pet to another.

It is interesting and helpful to consider the life expectancy of the breeds of dogs. If you know what to expect in advance, you will not be surprised at death, nor will you ask the impossible of your veterinarian.

There comes a time when you must ask yourself what's best. Should you let our dog die of old age, general breakdown, a growth, kidney disease, or other causes? Or shall we bravely say, "He has led a good life, he's no longer enjoying what little is left of it, he's blind and deaf,he's in some pain; he'll have pains put painlessly to sleep"?

It takes courage to make such a decision. When the time comes for the owner to decide what to do with his or her aging pet, there are some general facts which should be known. They may make the decision easier.

There is no pain to euthanasia if properly administered. A veterinarian can inject a few cc of an anesthetic into a pet's vein and he droops his eyes, nods his head, sighs as he feels release from pain, goes to sleep.He just never wakens.

An animal does not miss tomorrow. Suppose that you couldn't think ahead. If you had no imagination, you couldn't project yourself into the future. Mentally and physically you would live only in this moment - not even two seconds in the future. We can anticipate a fine dinner party and see images of it in our mind's eye. We can look forward in winter to next spring's flowers and thus make our winter more bearable. But an animal lives in the present alone, without any thought of the future. If he dies, Isis existence merely terminates. He is being deprived of nothing, for Ipse has no conception of the future.
Tire death of a pet is not his loss so much as it is ours. The home will be empty without his presence. True, for the past year he probably hasn't been the friend we knew and loved; he's been ailing and not himself. But propinquity has endeared him to us and we see him as he used to be; we remember all the fine qualities he once bad. When we hesitate to bring his life to an end, we arc unconsciously thinking of ourselves. We may even allow bins to suffer pain and discomfort because we don't want to lose bins; we don't want our serene existence upset by no longer having our pet.

Your dog is going to die someday. We must face this fact, even though we shrink from it Isn't it better to stop his suffering by terminating his existence by our own volition than to allow him to linger in pain or extreme old age?

Dogs have been evolved to be useful to man, and while they were being developed they lived closely enough to man to share his food.They became accustomed to it as time went on, and those that could not manage it died off, while those that could lived and reproduced .Partially as a result of that selection, we find that dogs, large and small,today thrive on an almost unbelievable variety of diets - such a wide variety of diets, indeed, that we may safely say they can digest anything human can digest. So the problem boils down to how to feed our pets best and most completely with the foods we have available, rather than to consider what they must be fed.

Should you have your dog buried? If so, where? The backyard? This is illegal in many cities. In a cemetery for pets? A grave and perpetual care is available in some communities. Should the animal be embalmed? Why? What happens after death, anyway?

Slow oxidation is what takes place, oxidation being the chemical name for burning. Wood in a fire oxidizes with a visible flame. Decaying stump oxidizes slowly, with no such flagrance. An animal's body oxidizes slowly too. So it is actually a matter of deciding between quick or slow oxidation; burial or cremation is the choice. Cremation is recommended. What matters if the oxidation is quick? Isn't it better to know it is over in a few minutes rather than slowly taking place in the cold ground over a period of years? Chemically, there's little difference; aesthetically, choose cremation. If your dog has certain diseases there is no doubt that cremation is in order to prevent the surfacing of the disease-causing organisms from the buried remains.