Treat aging dogs with same respect as aging human

When is it time for your older dog to pass away?

People tell me about how their older dog went blind, got arthritis, went deaf or began having accidents so they had to put them down.

I haven’t been told that any of the dogs I’m speaking of were in pain or suffering from something terminal, just losing abilities that come naturally with age.

Would you take our human senior citizens who’ve become too old or frail to work and euthanize them? No!

If you couldn’t care for them yourself, you’d likely find them some housing assistance in either assisted living or a nursing home where they could live out the rest of their days receiving the care that was needed and deserved.

These dogs have given their lives in silent love, devotion, therapy and friendship to us as family members, silent counselors, canine children and best friends, and this is how we repay them? Is it because you can’t handle being there when they die naturally?

I have a 15-year-old black lab that is nearly deaf, nearly blind, poops as she walks and even occasion- ally has accidents in her sleep. She’s even got doggy Alzheimer’s, gets confused and stares into space and forgets what she’s doing. But she’s not in pain, not suffering and still gets around pretty well.

Sure, she sleeps a lot, but she still has her puppy moments where she briefly wants to play and still wants and returns love and affection.

She’s been one of my dearest friends and I will return that love and care until she passes away naturally – in God’s time – not mine.

Julie Winters is a certified pet groomer and owner/operator of Canine Cozy Care Resort in Stanwood with her husband.