im really worried about my dog....

[drizl]

so my dog, actually my parents dog, her name is tootsie, and shes a 17 year old west highland white terrier. shes a sweetheart. and shes getting really really old. she has cataracts, no more hearing, can barely see, and she cant control her peeing anymore so my mom makes her wear doggie-diapers.
we had this doggie since it was a wee little pup. she was awesome- still is, but now shes an old fart and doesnt chase squirrels anymore, doesnt run anymore, and now she wont stop pawing my leg. im worried, i feel like shes in pain...

its sad when dogs get old and start dying.

[drizl]

is it fucked up that i get more attatched to pets than people? i have had many relatives die, and my older brother is constantly in and out of the hospital...but whenever i have had pets die (dogs and hamsters and fish) it has broken my heart.

[ericlee]

I may have mentioned my grandma's old poodle. I can't remember if I did.

The poor thing was 16 years old and was loosing control of it's bowel movements.

She would fart and turn around and growl at her ass.

[zorra_chiflada]

i'm very sorry to hear that.
getting close attachments to dogs is not unusual or something strange. it's perfectly understandable - look at how many adoring dog owners there are out there. they're so innocent and pure and loyal. how could you not grow attached to them? it's very sad to see them grow old and die. dogs don't live long enough
17 years old is a long life for a dog, and being a westie, it should be very active, excited and "ready to go." if it's not behaving like this anymore, you have to consider what the dog's quality of life is like. if she is in pain, it's not fair on her to have to experience that.

[drizl]

thanks zorra,
i dont know if i believe in the whole pet euthanasia thing. it is really my mothers dog...as i have been away for a long time and she is the one who really takes care of her. she gets her teeth pulled, she gets her diet all in order and yadda yadda. the dogs had a great life so far, but i am sort of against the whole "interfering with what is natural, what is happening"

i felt that way with my grandmother too. she was dying, on her death bed, and she was so drugged up she couldnt understand what was going on, couldnt even make sense out of anything we were saying to her, or what the doctors were telling her. i think that death is a journey, a very powerful experience and that it is a part of life- that there really is no death as our culture understands it. it is simply a moving on, a transformation of consciousness.

the tibetan book of the dead is a wonderful story.

so i think its really important for a living being to be fully conscious when dying, fully aware that they are dying, and that this is a good thing and increases their chances of understanding and finding meaning, easing their travels into other realms of awareness and consciousness. as said in the tibetan book of the dead, you are directly confronted with the reality of self when you die, and it is your reaction to this that determines if and where you come back to grow again, and have another chance, as a living being.

i just want to let her go with nature, and do everything i can to make the doggy a happy doggy. she loves eggs, so i have been giving her eggs. i give her little peices of cheese too. i just want the pup to have a good life, and a good death.

[saz]

Originally Posted by drizl

is it fucked up that i get more attatched to pets than people?

not at all. pets, ie dogs and cats, offer you nothing but loyal companionship, love, are cute, and are all around fun, who are incapable of stabbing you in the back and other acts of doucebaggery.

[Schmeltz]

So far as "interfering with nature" goes - your dog would have died long ago if she had lived in the wild; her life has been "unnaturally" prolonged by the quality of care provided by you and your family, to the point where the afflictions that would have afforded her a natural death have been prolonged into a period of intense suffering. I think it's more humane to euthanize an animal subject to such indignities.

[drizl]

Originally Posted by Schmeltz

So far as "interfering with nature" goes - your dog would have died long ago if she had lived in the wild; her life has been "unnaturally" prolonged by the quality of care provided by you and your family, to the point where the afflictions that would have afforded her a natural death have been prolonged into a period of intense suffering. I think it's more humane to euthanize an animal subject to such indignities.

i have been thinking about this one: man and dog are a symbiotic relationship right? man takes care of dog, gives shelter food and warmth to dog, dog protects man. thats a natural symbiotic relationship. its a bit idealized, but basically, thats what its about right?

while i agree being a dog and being forced to wear a diaper hurts ones dignity, i dont think that euthanasia or making the decision to take another living organisms life is fair, or dignified. dignity when dying has to do with knowing you are dying, with confronting death with open eyes- not being brought into a veteranian office, held down and injected with poison to first knock you out so you are unaware that you are dying, and then killing you with another poison. i dont see any dignity in that way.

[Randetica]

im sorry to hear

i know the feeling, just a few days ago i cried my ass off cause i thought i would never see my bunny again but the docs "only" had to amputate her leg and now she is alive and kickin (with one leg lol)

[Schmeltz]

Well, animals don't have the intelligence to be aware of death on the same level as people anyway. Even if they know they're dying in the sense that they're aware of the ebbing of their physical selves, they surely don't attach the same meaning to it that we do. But even if they do - if death is such a transcendent experience, then what does one's state of mind at the time have to do with anything? If your consciousness transcends death, then I don't see why it matters if you're sedated or ecstatic or asleep when the time comes. If someone happens to be asleep when they die, have they failed to confront death in the manner you allege is necessary to ease the transition into another state of being?

[drizl]

animals are intelligent. they know when somethings wrong. rupert sheldrake wrote a whole book on how dogs and cats can sense when their owners are on their way home. we dont know how smart, or stupid animals are.

if death is such a transcendent experience, then what does one's state of mind at the time have to do with anything? If your consciousness transcends death, then I don't see why it matters if you're sedated or ecstatic or asleep when the time comes. If someone happens to be asleep when they die, have they failed to confront death in the manner you allege is necessary to ease the transition into another state of being?

i think confronting death is not fearing it, and im not really sure if animals fear death or not. maybe some do, maybe some dont. if buddhists are right, and we evolve/devolve consciously from one body to the next, then in order for a dog to become a human, they would have to recognize certain truths before ascending towards human beingness. this could happen while living, or while dying, but through the death experience, there would be the final test for that life, in recognizing truth, and ultimately, a great chance to realize perfect enlightenment.
death being the final test before re=emergence into the world as a higher or lower being, i think its important to do whatever one can to assist themselves and others at the moment of death to help them realize truth. and i think sedation, and euthanization do not help.
you bring up a good point, however, if consciousness transcends death, what does it matter what state of mind you are in. well, techincally it probably shouldnt. dream states can be just as confusing as drug induced states. ultimately, it is the experience that is your life, that is your lives, that results in the decisions you make, and illumination or ignorance that you become as the experience of death, the ultimate detachment of ego as the conscious self seperates from the physical body.
but i think that we should do everything we can to make sure someone has the power to realize truth in the death experience, especially while ones consciousness is still within the body-vessel, where ego is strongest. (ego meaning attachment to self, fear of death etc...)once you are detatched from your physical body and there is no more bodily sensation, then youa re on your own. according to the tibetans, one can still hear, and so the tibetan book of the dead is recited to the dead body.

im not trying to speak on behalf of the tibetan book of the dead, only as explaining why i feel its important to help living beings reach a competent level of awareness at the moment of death. and i have read the tibetan book of the dead a few times, and to me, it makes sense and so it is how i feel.