Whoop was my constant companion for about the last 15 years, and wasn't a puppy when I adopted her, so was at least 16 years old. Recently, her appetite diminished and her back legs became increasingly unstable; they'd occasionally slide out sideways and she'd need assistance to regain her footing. I took her to the veterinarian at the end of July and they treated her with medication that improved her appetite for a few days. However, that bounce didn't last, and it soon took a lot of coaxing for her to even eat a bit of "people food" -- she'd go days without touching her dog food and didn't appear to be drinking much either. As days passed, I had to lift her over stairs more frequently, and she recently began wandering around as if disoriented; she seemed to become very frail over the last 1-1/2 months. I kept hoping that it was a stomach/bowel issue and "bounce back" once she started eating and drinking normally, but my worries increased as her condition worsened.

She had a bad seizure at about 1:30 this morning -- over the course of a few minutes, she progressed from the kind of kicking that dogs often do in their sleep, to struggling and howling. Mom drove us over to the Jefferson Animal Hospital -- about half way over, Whoop settled down some, but I think that she may have simply been exhausted; even once we got there, she still couldn't find a comfortable resting position. They did a blood workup and reported that her kidneys had failed (the levels of those blood indicators were higher than their equipment's range) and that they might get her over this incident with several days of hospitalization, but that there was no positive long-term prognosis due to her condition and age. The vet speculated that the best I could reasonably expect would be that she'd live a couple more weeks, possibly a bit over a month, but that Whoop wouldn't recover. Based on that diagnosis, her immediate discomfort, and overall condition, I decided to let her go.

I'm confident that I made the right decision, but am also quite emotional about it. Whoop was loved and a source of joy during some trying times in my life; I tried to be as good for her as she was for me and like to feel that I was worthy of her friendship. It would be easiest for me not to have a big deal made of it, but I wanted to pass the news along.