For those dog lovers, you should be able to relate. Back in Aug 92 my wife and I tied the knot. In early 93 we went to the Iowa Animal Rescue and found Dylan (we named him after Bob). He was estimated to be 9 mths old at that time and was a stray.
Actually, I was looking at big dogs and Karen said "Hey Randy, come look at this little cutie." I told her I would be over that way in a bit. Our neighbors had big dogs, English Pointers, and for some reason I wanted a big dog...
When I finally made it over to that area, Dylan's little black nose was sticking through the small cage and his puppy brown eyes won us over. We were lucky, as when we started checking him out and filling out the paper work, 2 other families inquired about him.
He has been the best dog, and was our first kid. Those dog owners will understand...
Anyway, he is now 18, and up until about a year ago, he could still jump up on our King bed that was very high. About 10 years ago he used to like jumping up on our pool table.
Health wise we have been very lucky. He has never really been to the vet for anything serious, besides his yearly checkups. I highly recommend people consider mix breeds, as they tend to have less issues than pure bread dogs.
We think he has a little dachshund in him, and possibly terrior or other collie breed.
Anyway, this last year he has slowed up a bit. In our last vet appt. they mentioned that he had lost a lot of weight and his kidney function test had gotten a little worse since the last visit. On a scale of 5 where 5 is kidney failure, he is like 2.5. The bad thing is that he just won't eat hardly anything anymore, and won't drink water as much. He is starting to drewl a little, which is normal for dogs where their kidneys don't work at 100%.
We have even tried people food; rice, chicken, mash potatoes, at the vets recommendation, and while it worked the first few days, now he does not want that either...
I think it is only a matter of time. We may have to make the decision to put him to sleep, which will be very hard for me...
Thanks for listening, it means a lot...Randy
