IGX

Tomorrow morning, we have to put down our 9y/o Blue Heeler, Arlo. The short story is, it appears he's had a stroke and the vet agrees, the kindest thing we can do is put him down.

Arlo joined our home about 7 years ago, we were his third home by the time he was 2y/o. A bonafide working dog breeding from a Louisiana farm, he's more dog for most, so he had a nice, fun run in our home (for those of you who don't know, my wife and I were professional dog trainers for 10+ years). He taught our kids a ton, has been incredibly tolerant of them, and has been a tireless sentry. We'll miss him.

We've been letting the kids stay up late tonight to hang with him and I type this as they settle for the night. I took tomorrow off so we can 'celebrate' the time we had with him, doing whatever, vs. coming home after it's done and 'mourning'....plenty of time for that later. We told our kids what needed to be done this past Saturday, so it's been a long week. They're being troopers, but the 6y/o boy is going to handle it hard when it's done.

Have a nip to Arlo and all the other really good dogs who've been great family dogs.

I'm sorry to hear that, Nappy. I hope things go as well as possible tomorrow for you and the family. To Arlo!

To Arlo!

To Arlo, long may he run

Vaya con dios Arlo. Glad you had a good run, wish it was longer.

To Arlo!

To Arlo!

Good dog!

He went very peacefully. The kids have been troopers.

Sorry to hear about Arlo. We're on the downward slope of our time with Samson the Wonder GSD. He's 12 and we just found out he has what is nearly certainly a cancerous growth on his side. Biopsy results will be back early next week, but the vet's quick look under the scope wasn't promising.

A glass will be tipped this evening for Arlo.

Damn. Sorry for your lie-loss. RIP Arlo.

Nappy, I'm sorry to hear about Arlo, but glad to hear your family is handling it well. Losing a dog is hard.

Not our first rodeo putting a family dog down, but it was for the kids (girl turned 9 this past spring; boy turned 6 last month). What we did right, thankfully, is tell them a week ago at the kitchen table what was happening and why. There was no urgency in putting the dog down right away, so the extra few days were well-spent. Not to mention the vet we wanted to do the job wasn't available until yesterday.

The tough part with him, vs. putting down OG Otis or Syd, is that the majority of his time he was with it and right before we took him to the vet, he played frisbee with the kids and was doing his aerial acrobatics, played with the puppy, ect.

After he went down, I took everyone to a malt shop for burgers and a malt and we toasted Arlo with our red and watery eyes. Then, I took everyone to a near-by 'fake beach' which is essentially a 5-6 acre, sandy-bottomed pool. Got pizza after that and watched two of The Rock's Journey to the Center of the Earth type movies.....so we made it a 'fun day' for them, talked about all the cool things Arlo did, ect. I will definitely get another working cattle dog; we don't have livestock, but otherwise, they fit right in.

The universe smiled on us with the decision to get the puppy, which we decided to do this past winter and came home 5 weeks ago. She is definitely providing some relief on the kids by way of just being a puppy.

Tough time, but happy memories. Had to do that with my bulldog, Lefty. I remember the good times. Dogs are great.

Sorry to hear that Nappy. RIP Arlo.

Misty in here. I remember when you got him. Good bye, good dog.

That photo with the tennis balls was from one or two years ago...that was not staged; he would scour the house and find all the balls.

What a good boy.

Man, my boxer is 10, and he's still going strong, but I can feel the finish line right out of site.

Good Night Arlo,

I know you will be missed.

Sorry for your loss....

RIP, Arlo. You had a good life.
I'll tip a glass to you tomorrow when I get home.

Sorry hearing about Arlo.I still thing quite regul about all the dogs I`ve had and the memories always bring a smile to my face.RIP Arlo!

Ahhh. It's always difficult, especially with a lie dog like Arlo.

When I have to put them down, I've done this. Probably there's one thing you can say to your lie-dog that excites them more than anything else. My dog Grace loved the river. Loved the river and whenever I said "let's go the river" she was very excited.

When she could not walk anymore and needed to go, what I did was put her in the truck --- dogs know you are going somewhere good in a truck. We went to the vet to put her down.

Now the vet came out to the truck and gave her the first shot. The one that sedates them And as that happened, I said the thing that she loved best. "Let's go the RIVER." And she died in my arms in the truck. Well, I had to carry her in thru the back door so the vet could give her the final shot.

But I feel just a little bit better that, as she want, she thought she was going to her particular heaven.