One of my beloved poodles is probably in his last days here on Earth. Well, I KNOW he is. First a little background on me. I have always had poodles. From the time I was 8, my parents got one. He lived until I left the house and got married and then my husband and I always had toy poodles. They are just the best little dogs ever...super smart and hypoallergenic. And contrary to popular belief, they DO shed, but it is in little easy to manage clumps, unlike most other breeds. Anyway, my current poodles are Rippy (age 15) and Chewy (age 1). Yes, I know those are some interesting names, but believe me, those names fit their personalities! Anyway, during the Christmas 2013 season, we were convinced Rippy was going to die. He had gotten to where he could barely stand, had dementia, etc. and my husband was scared he was going to die during Christmas, and he didn't want me sad, so he bought Chewy as a gift for me. Well, I guess Rippy took offense to that and he literally came back to life! Then last summer, he got bad again and was acting like he was having little strokes and walking around in circles and I was too scared (stupid, I know) to take him to the vet because I didn't' want them to force some expensive treatments and to make me feel bad, so we just have him some baby aspirin to see what happened and voila! He came back to life again and was perfectly normal. Or as normal as a 14 year old dog can me. So he had defied death twice! Well a couple of weeks ago my husband took me to Ireland, and we had nobody to keep our poodles, so we boarded them at the kennel. A few days after we returned, I noticed Rippy had a cough. Well it kept getting worse and worse, and I could tell his breathing was labored. Again, I was too scared to take him to the vet because I didn't want to hear what they would say. Congestive heart failure? Lung cancer? But this morning I looked into his eyes and I could see his suffering so we took him anyway. And guess what? He has KENNEL COUGH! He caught it from them while we were in Ireland! So they are treating him (thankfully little Chewy doesn't have it) but they did point out a tumor on his neck which I hadn't noticed. They said it was a lymph node which could or could not be cancer, but I do know I don't want to do chemo on a 15 year old dog! I won't put him through that! Right now he is happy and eating, and as long as we can treat this cough, then so be it. Anyway, please if you could, just remember little Rippy and that he won't be in any suffering, and that his cough will get better. This is so hard. Sometimes I just wish dogs could die peacefully in their sleep so their owners didn't have to make difficult decisions!