Devastated after my 13 yr old bud passed away.

I put my little bud, Bumpy, to sleep yesterday. He had taken a nasty fall from two storeys high. He underwent surgery to fix the fractures in his hind leg, had a cast on that leg for more than a month and half, and couldn't stand up or walk. Despite a lot of effort, and the many visits to the vet, his old body didn't seem to recover. His kidney functions were impaired, due to which he refused to eat anything. He had to be force fed his meals and meds. A week ago, he started feeling tremendous pain in his leg and lower body, yelped at every attempt to move. The only thing that soothed him were head scratches. I used to sit by him for hours, scratching his head and ears till he fell asleep. But the pain used to shoot back. He was rendered blind by the cataract he developed in his eyes. All these conditions combined brought down his quality of life severely. I took the final decision a couple of days ago thinking that he didn't deserve to go through this agony and misery, instead he needed a peaceful and dignified sleep. I was up early on his last day, and sat by him, giving him head scratches for hours. My little brother and I were with him when he was administered the injection. I tried my best to be my brother's rock and keep him strong, but It hit me hard when he was placed inside the cremation chamber. I haven't been able to hold it together in the past couple of days.

He was my little brother, with whom I shared my meals and bed. He loved scratches, and would always shove my hand with his snout, back to his neck, indicating I keep scratching. We had a lot of memories happy and sad. He was a strong doggo.

One day, in his youth, he'd managed to open the gate and walk out into the road, got hit by a car, got up and walked back inside the house, bleeding.

In another incident, he'd managed yet again to get past the gate at night, but this time he was picked up by a drunk, homeless man who'd wanted to make a quick buck by selling him off. My brother and I searched a radius of 5 miles from our house for days and nights, put up flyers and got the word out. After eight long days, I received a call from a security guard claiming to know a person who'd spotted him. We tracked down that drunk, homeless man who'd sent Bumpy off to the suburbs, and finally found Bumpy. I still remember that day when I found him, I was overwhelmed with emotion, I just ran back home with Bumpy to bathe him, feed him and hug him.

Yesterday was by far the toughest day of my life. Took a long drive, had myself a drink, and watched two dog movies back to back till early morning. Another day is over, and coming back home at night isn't exciting anymore. I went out and fed some stray dogs and petted them for a while. I find myself tearing up again and again.

Here's some pics of my lil guy: Album

I hope your leg's perfect now, and you're running and playing and getting all the treats, wherever you are, Bub. I'll join you soon, and we'll have fun together again.