A few months ago, something I had been dreading for years happened.  Our 14 year old dog, Pierre, died.  Despite his age, it was something that was relatively unexpected. Over the course of a few days his health quickly deteriorated and my wife and I sat by his side in the emergency vet and painfully watched him go into cardiac arrest and die after a procedure that we hoped might buy him a little bit of extra time with us. Although it was something we thought we had been mentally and emotionally preparing for over the years, it hit us much harder than ever expected. Read more