re: OT'ers who have had to put an elderly pet down

Yes, if they are like the hospice programs here in SC, they will euthanize your pet at home, where they are most comfortable. Our daschund, bc of the adrenal gland tumor, would be in particularly horrid pain when driven to the specialist about an hour and a half away. The tumor would cause his system to flood his body with adrenaline which just intensified his pain. Having the hospice option was a Godsend bc otherwise, his last day with us would have included that horrible car ride as one of his final memories.

We had him buried in the backyard, had a gravestone marker made for him, and have flowers planted around his grave.

Our other dachshund, who is 17 and still going as strong as ever much to his vet's amazement, still refuses to go near where his buddy of ten years is buried and he has been depressed since Baby died. It's hurting him to have lost Baby just like it's hurting us. Every day gets a little better for him it seems, but for a week solid, anytime he was outside he would sit on the porch staring out at the driveway as if watching, waiting and hoping that Baby would return home.