On a sadder note, my 14 year old beagle died today.
The amazing part was how quickly her health declined. 4 days ago everything was apparently A-OK. 3 days ago she seemed more lethargic than normal, lost her appetite, and coughed quite a bit. 2 days ago she was back to acting pretty much like her normal talkative self (if you've been around beagles you'll know how much they like to vocalize) and started eating a little bit again, so I figured she had recovered from whatever it was. Then yesterday things took a major turn for the worse. I noticed she was breathing very rapidly and looked to be uncomfortable. Late last night she slinked off into the closet of a bedroom I never use. Definitely not a good sign, since dogs generally go into seclusion when they're ready to die. I coaxed her out, and spent some time just enjoying her company.
I came home from work today to check up on her and make an appointment with a veternarian if she wasn't doing any better. I found her in a pile of my dirty clothes (one of her favorite places to sleep). My first thought was "cool, she seems to be doing better, she's not breathing really fast now.", soon followed by "uh oh...she's not breathing AT ALL."
I played with her big floppy ears one last time before wrapping her up in a blanket and putting her in a box, pending burial in my back yard tomorrow. Sure was weird picking up what I had known for the last 14 years as a warm, crazy, animated dog--since this time she was a cold stiff corpse.
It's amazing how some dumb animal can become such a significant part of your life. And given a dog's average life span it's pretty much guaranteed you'll have to deal with its departure. Doesn't make it any more pleasant, though.
I think I'm going to spend a month or so remembering that goofy beagle, and enjoying not having to buy pet food, taking her outside to pee every few hours, and worrying about scaring the bejeezus out of her when I crank up my stereo. Then I'm sure I'll be scouting out another pet, because they're just too fun to not have.