We had to say goodby to our wonderful Dandy Dog on Tuesday February 19, 2013. He was the best dog in the world to us, always happy, always a great friend. He was almost 14 years old and his age had caught up with him. He had been on arthritis medication for several years, and for the past year on pain medication and thyroid medication. He limped when he walked, and had lost his hearing for about the last two years. He took it all in stride and learned to respond to sign language. He would wait for me to go outside because some times he would fall down in the grass and wanted me to pick him up, which I gladly did even in the rain and cold mornings at 6am. We had our morning routine, I would come down the stairs and he would be on the rug, looking up the stairs, waiting for me. I sometimes think he sat up all night looking up at the stairs for when I would come down in the morning. We would go outside, then have breakfast, then I would clean his ears (you have to keep lab ears clean and unless you have a lab you might not understand what I mean), then lay on the floor for some petting. It was very strange for the past two days coming down stairs and he was not there. The house seemed very empty. In the last ten days, Dandy began to put on weight and his abdomen began to swell and was very firm to the touch. The Vet said this was probably his liver leaking into his abdomen and there was nothing we could do about it, expecially at his age. We struggled over the decision because he seemed to be very happy, wagging his tail, and smiling (yes he did smile). Since he didnt appear to be in pain, we hated to do what we both knew had to be done. On his last morning we did the usual, had a nice breakfast, then he laid in the sun on his rug. We opened the back door and there was a nice cool breeze blowing over him, which he loved. Although his hearing was gone, and his eyes seemed to be getting cataracts, he still could smell the smallest of smells in the air, from miles away. We called the vet and made the arrangements, and took one last car ride. Our Vet, Steve Brian is a wonderful and caring and compasionate man and he understood how hard this was for us. We laid Dandy down on the table in the vets office, and he was wagging his tail. I guess I have to back track a bit, when we arrived at the vet, Dandy was happy, becasue he loved goingto the vet. He loved to smell other dogs, and the things other dogs left behind. When I opened the back of the van he was wagging his tail, he was happy to be there and recognized where we were right away. He had been there many times before. He tried to getup, but could not stand up, his back legs just were not strong enough. He wanted to jump out of the van like he had done many times before and run all around the parking lot at the vet and take in the smells. I had to pick him up and carry him in. As he laid on the table, he continued to wag his tail, he was happy to be there, a place he liked to visit and a vet that he knew and liked to visit as well. The vet shaved a small patch of hair on Dandys back leg, and slowly administered the shot that would give Dandy his peace at last. His tail still wagging, he looked into our eyes, still with a smile on his face and slowly drifted away. Kathryn cried her eyes out, and we quickly left the room. A sad chapter in our lives, we have had Dandy and his black lab brother Duke for the past 14 years, our children have never lived in a house without a dog. This will be a tough adjustment for all of us. This is the last post for the Lab Blog, and I am writing this on behalf of Dandy, who loved everyone and was happy from the day he was born until the his very last breath.