It's Always Hard to Say Good-bye

About 2 1/2 years ago, we got our very sweet dog from a family moving over-seas.  We had been wanting a dog and Titan fit right in!  He was such a smart dog, and did great with the kids.  He was gentle around them, but had lots of spunk and could play fetch for hours.  In March, we noticed he was drinking a TON of water and having lots of accidents/having to urinate a lot.  The vet ran some tests and the only thing that came back was high calcium levels, indicating cancer or a tumor were most likely.  They couldn't feel anything but believed something may be going on.  We were basically told that treatment options likely weren't great and would be expensive, so we decided to love on him for as long as we could.  Lately he had been seeming in a lot of pain.  He walked a little funny, started getting vocal with the kiddos when they got too close, was losing weight, was falling down a lot, and wasn't himself.  When we took him in for pain medication to help him, they found a soccer ball sized tumor in his abdomen.  Because of the size and location, they felt surgery wasn't a great option for him.  We tried steroids and pain medication, but it just wasn't enough to help him.  We decided it was time to let him go.  We fed him steak, gave him lots of love, and got him ice cream cones from McDonalds.  I let each kid feed him a mini cone, and they thought it was wonderful (P.S.  We were stopped in a parking lot, which was why Conner was out of his booster ;)).

Conner was very set on coming with us, and though I was hesitant to let him at first,  I decided to let it be his choice.  Conner is very mature emotionally and I know that, because of his personality, if he had his heart set on going, it would really, really bother him if he couldn't.   I also felt like I'd rather him see how peacefully it all went than wonder and be scared of death.  The girls stayed with my mom and Conner chose to stay with us.  Though we all cried and were sad to say goodbye, Conner said that he is glad he came with us and got to tell him good-bye one last time.  We stayed with Titan the whole time, and made sure he knew he was loved.

It's always hard to say good-bye to a pet that you love.  He was part of our family, and will be greatly missed!  We love you Titan!