mans' best friend: when is it time to say goodbye?

To his dog, every man is King;
hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous Huxley

When is it time to say goodbye - or more accurately, euthanize a pet? Just asking that question makes me feel ... squeamish, uncomfortable, disloyal, and more than a little guilty.

I've been surfing the net to find perspectives and advice on knowing the right moment. This is probably my roundabout way of starting to get comfortable with something that needs to happen in the not so distant future, even if it's not this week or month or calendar year.

One of my problems is that about the time it seems very obvious that my 12-year-old schnauzer Colby has no 'quality of life' and is so miserable that putting him down is simple kindness, he perks up and shows a flash of his youthful vigor. Even if just for a day or two.

I'm sure that some of the guilt I feel comes from the way we anthropomorphize our pets. I know in my mind he's not really a human, but he's been part of the family so long - and paws down, he listens to me more than anyone else in the house - that it feels like I'm contemplating the life and death of a person.

Another stream of guilt feelings for me probably has to do with the realization that I'm not just looking at his quality of life but my own. The extra care and expense of an older pet, one who gets a couple shots a day and needs to be looked after and helped in other ways is probably one thing I simply don't want on top of the responsibilities of family life. Doing something that is in Colby's best interest that just happens to be in my best interest is not necessarily a matter of rationalization and those two dynamics are not mutually exclusive - but you try telling yourself that when your internal dialog includes phrases like 'lethal injection'.

The most common advice I've bumped into on the net - from the 'ask the vet' to the 'my pet tribute' sites, and on over to Old Yeller movie forums - has to do with the matter of pain. I know Colby is at minimum very uncomfortable. But how much pain is he in? He definitely favors one hip and he struggles to breathe sometimes. He's very lethargic - but so are a lot of other dogs and even a few humans I know; doesn't mean we put them down for wanting to lay around. Then other times he seems to really enjoy his walk and looks content to just be here.

Should I just call the vet and ask him or her what to do? The non 'ask the vet' sites warn you that many vets will just listen for a little while and then tell you what they think you want to hear. I've had worse conversations than that!

One bit of counsel that showed up numerous times is to not fall in the trap of 'waiting for God to decide the time' - that as a pet owner you have the responsibility to make a hard decision if the pet is miserable. This is just another variation of not letting Colby wallow helplessly in pain, and as I've noted previously, I'm no expert on observing what is 'too much pain' and 'miserable'. I did have a friend on Facebook this morning tell me that dogs hide pain because they are people pleasers. I don't doubt that but I'm still not convinced anyone can really 'know' that. And she got that from her vet who might be a bit of a people pleaser himself.

Well. I filled his bowl with food. I gave Colby his morning shot. Still not sure what I'm going to do. But at least now I know it isn't today.

washington on america - and war and politics and virtue (and handguns)

A happy and blessed 4th of July to you and America on its 233rd birthday.

On this fourth day of posting quotes it is only fitting to give George Washington the seat of honor. When Henry Lee delivered his funeral oration in 1799, he said of him, he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Yesterday we highlighted Lincoln, who held the union of a young nation together – at the cost of a Civil War – through force of will. Washington was the one who through force of will, personality, diplomacy, and talent kept the union from disintegrating before it started. After winning the Revolutionary War, Washington headed straight for his plantation in Mount Vernon to retire from public life. When King George III heard this, he said that if he would actually do that he was the greatest man who ever lived. And it seems to be the case that Washington really wasn’t interested in holding power, despite winning the presidency two terms.

His quotes, as well as those of Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln from previous days, underscore the degree to which our nation was built on the premise that Freedom required good citizens – and that good citizens were those who practiced virtue and lived with integrity. A nice reminder for our day on this 4th. Enjoy!

While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.

It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.

I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit, and Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder.

A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.

However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.

abraham lincoln on america (and life)

With our country's 233rd birthday just around the corner, we've posted some quotes from two of the Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in the last few days. Fast forward to a time when it didn't look like the United States would celebrate its 100th anniversary as a country. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president US president, a self-taught man from humble circumstances, cast a vision of integrity - despite the cost - for the union in his words and actions. Here are just a few thoughts from 'Honest Abe' - a common man with uncommon wisdom applied to personal success, politics, virtue, and even the practice of law!

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

Perhaps the most famous and immortal words that Lincoln ever spoke are known as the Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

For the 4th? Come back and visit to find out!

thomas jefferson on america

Yesterday the spotlight was on quotes by the serious and somber John Adams. As we approach the 233rd birthday of the United States of America, who better to cite than Thomas Jefferson, political philosopher, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and our third president, serving two terms. His presidency was marked by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Louisiana Purchase. He is the only two term president to never veto a bill from Congress.

Jefferson was a true Renaissance Man and was accomplished in areas as diverse as horticulture, archeology, and architecture. He was a gadget inventor with a fondness for clocks and was a student of the Bible, though not known for his orthodoxy. Even after his presidency he kept busy, founding the University of Virginia - another of his singular achievements among his presidential colleagues.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

Delay is preferable to error.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Tomorrow? George Washington? Abraham Lincoln? Benjamin Franklin? All of the above? We'll see!

john adams on america

Just four days until the 4th of July and America's 233rd birthday. Our first vice president and second president was John Adams, who stepped out of the shadows of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and other Founding Fathers in the modern consciousness with the surprise bestselling biography by David McCullough and the HBO miniseries based on it.

Here are just a few quotes from the Massachusetts school teacher, lawyer, and politician - who went to Harvard to study for the ministry at his father's encouragement - and the father of a political dynasty, including his son, John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the United States. But just a warning. Of all the Founding Fathers, perhaps none was more of a curmudgeon than Adams.

I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Tomorrow? Thomas Jefferson, who became our nation's third president by beating Adams in their election face off and keeping him as a one term president.