Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Sorry but I just need to talk. I just made the hardest decision of my life. I just scheduald an appointment at my vet to have my dog uteuthanized. Let me give you a little background on him. He is a 9-10 yr old rottweiler. His name is Rufus and he is absolutly the best dog alive. I got him in '95 from some people who couldn't take animals to their new home. I had to take him from a 13yr old girl screaming that she hated her mom cause she couldn't keep her new puppy. I felt like crap. It was after the big winter storm that crushed the east coast with 20 inches of snow. He was small and bald on his back from scratching. He didn't even look like a rotti. anyway, this dog never used the house as a bathroom. If he had to go and couldn't go out, he climbed down the stairs to the basement and went on the conc floor. He never threw-up indoors. I used to excersize my other dog, Kilo (doberman) and Rufus by driving my quad around the woods and they would chase me. Then in '97 I found Rufus stiff as a board and cold on the living room floor one morning after a 10 mile run the day before. I thought he was dead. Turns out he was stiff and swollen from the run and had Lymes disease. The vet gave him meds and a year later he was lymes free. I then turned to remote control cars to excersize them in the yard. In 2001 I let the 2 outside about 9pm in the summer. They usually romp around the woods in the backyard for a while and come in when tired. This time I couldn't hear their collars jingling. I looked for them frantically for 3 hrs and then called the police (most people will call the police if they see 2 of those dogs running around free). About an hour later, The police call back and say that a dog has been hit by a car near my house. I jumped in my bronco and didn;t let up off the throttle till I was at the scene. A bystander stayed at the accident till the police showed up to protect the dog. He was standing on the shoulder with his leg wraped around in a circle. A car had run over his rear leg and he had a compound fracture. This is at 1am and I ran him 40 mi to the animal hospital. He had 3 opperations to fix the leg and 2 months in the hospital. I also took him to Manhatten about 3 weeks before the 9/11 incident and saw the towers from the hospital window. All total I invested $8000 into him for the accident and he was like a new dog. He had the exterior pins with epoxy holding his leg together for 3 more months. He climbed over gates and opened doors to be with Kilo while I was at work ( he was supposed to be isolated while his leg healed) . Also he came home from the hospital with a ear infection that took almost a year to get rid of. All in all, the staff at the hospital said he was the best behaved dog they ever had. He never growled, bit or cried once with all he went through. Then last year kilo, his best friend died. A few months later, I got him a new australian shepherd,Roxy, and they love each other. Now rufus has inoperable spinal damage probably from playing with Roxy. He slowly has lost the ability to walk or climb stairs well, bowel and urinary control is gone. The hardest part is that the front half of him is in very good health, and to look him in the face and know what I have to do makes me cry my eyes out. So I just gave him a bowl of beef and potato stew and He is outside in the backyard(his favorite place). tomorrow I will take him to Mcdonalds for a big breakfast before the inevidable. Please disreguard any miss spelling for I am unable to re-read this without crying. I love this dog moor than life itself and have no other family to be with at this time.
Goodspeed rufus, amen.
Goodspeed rufus, amen.
Strangely enough, when I have those dreams and awake it is like the dogs are still sitting outside ready to go, I can feel their presence in a very real way. 
