About 12 months ago there was a link on here to youtube and it was about an american man and his female friend taking his dog to be put down (I think. It was hard to watch through tear soaked eyes!), it was a real heartbreaker and I think the challenge was to watch it without crying….I failed! I think that a bike was in the video too?

Watched Marley and Me the other night, I lost that challenge too!

Post on here today asking ‘when was the last time you cried’?…..it will be in about 5 minutes if I can find that video on youtube

Yes, I’ve got two dogs and dread the day they pass away.

Don’t have a link sorry, but my old dog died in May (still have the younger one although he’s 10 so getting on as well), and there’s barely a day goes past when I don’t “get something in my eye.”

Almost broke me TBH.

Dazzlingboy, I can kind of relate what you mean but fortunately i haven’t had to go through it yet. Got my spanish water dog four years ago and realised how upset I’m going to be when she dies so decided to get another pup (springer) a month ago so I’ll always hopefully have one dog which should soften the blow when one dies.

……or just set myself up for twice the heartache?

Lots out there to choose from, was it this Last minutes with Oden

yep.. saw it on vimeo originally (better quality)

[video]http://vimeo.com/8191217[/video]

That film has just reduced me to a wreck.

I got my first dog 15 months ago and he is amazing, and the unconditional love you get is awesome.

It’s hopefully a very long way away, but I hate to think about the day he will have to go away.

I can’t even bring myself to watch it. A bif soft git, I know.
I lost a 15 year old cat last month, which was bad enough, but I have his sister still on the go and a 10 year old German Shepherd who is starting to get on a bit.
Lots of upset to come in the next few years, I reckon.

……or just set myself up for twice the heartache?

I don’t think so – the one I have left keeps me sane – and I’ll start to shop around one day so he has a friend in his older days. I can’t imagine life without a dog – when I visit a house without a dog, no matter what is happening and how much life there is about their house (kids/fun/friendship) it always seems somehow empty without a dog.

sslowpace – very similar photo to yours – at the other end of the road unfortunately.

Damn.

Felt compelled to watch that and now in a bit of a state 🙁

Two dogs in our house; brother and sister a year apart.

The love, companionship is just amazing.

The video is a sad realization that its the way things will eventually go.

May just go play with the dogs for 10 minutes now.

dazzlingboy – Member

when I visit a house without a dog, no matter what is happening and how much life there is about their house (kids/fun/friendship) it always seems somehow empty without a dog.

So very true.

We (Mrs LMTTM & I) often remark to folk what we did prior to dogs – seems strange but you can spend an age just being with them and not doing a thing.

Our two a couple of months ago:

😥

dazzlingboy, lovely 8)

Whilst I am as Gnarr as anyone, apart from the vid, the only thing that ‘gets’ me is the Rainbow Bridge poem (snif…)

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

Author unknown…

Jesus, that video of Oden started me off and I’m sitting in open plan office. I guess I best go and answer the other post now ‘when was the last time you cried’.

Was wondering if the joy of having a dog in your life brings to you is worth the inevitable heartache it will bring………of course it is.

Jesus.

I’m crying like a girl.

I don’t know what I’d have done through my illness without my dog.

dazzlingboy, that is one of the saddest photos I have ever seen. I need to go home and cry some more

@letmetalktomark

My wife loves those dogs…I hope you don’t mind I’ve emailed her that picture.

(hopefully one day she’ll agree to get a dog)

Ah **** that, I can only make it about two mins into the video.
I cant finish it now, there´s too many people in the house.

Had to take my 9yr old rotweiller to the vets because she was in pain with skin cancer of all bloody things. One of the hardest things I´ve ever had to do. That was 3 years ago and its still an open wound, I´ve been putting off getting a new dog but I think I´m coming round to the idea now.

This makes me fill up, particularly the last two lines as it’s exactly how my first lurcher Ali would come back through the meadow on his daily when called. The whole thing describes life with a dog completely.

WE HAVE A SECRET

We have a secret, you and I
that no one else shall know,
For who but I can see you lie
each night in fire glow?

And who but I can reach my hand
before we go to bed
And feel the living warmth of you
and touch your silken head?

And only I walk woodland paths
and see you ahead of me,
Your small form racing with the wind
so young again, and free.

And only I can see you swim
in every brook I pass
And when I call, no one but I
can see the bending grass.

Our circumstances changed a little after we took Ted on, but we have managed to work out a routine so that we could keep him. I dread the day he goes because a house is just wrong without a dog, and I don’t see how we can get through the settling in period with a rescue with our new ‘schedules’.

@letmetalktomark

My wife loves those dogs…I hope you don’t mind I’ve emailed her that picture.

(hopefully one day she’ll agree to get a dog)

It may have backfired…she able to quickly identify that the one on the left was definately a boy.

The vid and the rainbow Bridge poem have got me into a right state. Our dog is only two and it’s a long way off yet but I sometimes think about when the day comes. 😥

I think I’ll wait till the house is empty before I watch that.
Watched Marley and me a few weeks agao and christ I was in bits. My father died when I was two, he didnt leave us with much apart from his gundog Kiri a yellow lab. That dog was my world up until the age of about 12. That film nearly broke me 😳

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie–
Perfect passsion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find–it’s your own affair–
But … you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone–wherever it goes–for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long–
So why in–Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

The Power of the Dog
by
Rudyard Kipling

Oi ya bastids. Stop it you’re making me blub like a big girls blouse & that was just the two poems. Not helped by one of my 2 mutts coming up to me & nudging my elbow with their nose as it’s their dinner time. 😥

Don’t think i should watch the vid & the other half has banned me from watching Marley & me 🙄

😥

I watched last minutes with Odin the last time It was posted and It reduced me to tears . My dog and occasional riding buddy Charlie is 6 years old and probably at the same stage of his life as I am . I had to put my cat down last month after 18 years and was a blubbering wreck when Charlie goes Im booking into the nuthouse for a month . Still a long way to go till that happens.

I read Marley And Me before I watched it and had to read the last chapter with my foot against the bedroom door to stop my kids seeing me in a state.

You swines!
I just watched that vid and had this at the other side of the iPad

😥
Chyna (left) is coming up for 12 and very, very fit indeed bu she had a lump removed from her throat the other month that may have affected her thyroid. Wost case scenario…6 months. Granted, it’ll be 33% less drool, farting and snoring but it’ll kill me!

On a Good Dog

O, my little pup ten years ago
was arrogant and spry,
Her backbone was a bended bow
for arrows in her eye.
Her step was proud, her bark was loud,
her nose was in the sky,
But she was ten years younger then,
And so, by God, was I.

Small birds on stilts along the beach
rose up with piping cry.
And as they rose beyond her reach
I thought to see her fly.
If natural law refused her wings,
that law she would defy,
for she could do unheard-of things,
and so, at times, could I.

Ten years ago she split the air
to seize what she could spy;
Tonight she bumps against a chair,
betrayed by milky eye!
She seems to pant, Time up, time up!
My little dog must die,
And lie in dust with Hector’s pup;
So, presently, must I.

Ogden Nash

Takes me straight back to my first dog

crying my eyes out now. it feels like a long time since ive had to go through that, wolf was my dog since childhood and i had him put down when he was 17 and i was 24,
i made sure i was there, nose to nose telling him how well he had loved and how much we all loved him. right till the end.
it felt like the only gift i had ever been able to give him to ease his passing like that.
i doubt i would be here now if it wasn’t for that dog and the constant unquestioning love he gave me. he guided me through some really dark times and i can still picture his face smiling up at me during the best of times.
ive never known a dog with such grace.
rest easy wolfie