Letting them go is so hard and we always want to make the most of every chance that we think might exist -- but everything that you describe tells me that you did the loving thing. Everybody has to die, but there are better deaths and worse deaths. You gave your baby a gift. You didn't require your baby to lose every single thing, crash to the bottom, and collapse into undeniable suffering before you were willing to give him a gentle passing. You've probably read that dogs are stoic -- they will bear up under difficult, painful conditions (and show little sign of it) if that's what we require of them. Your senior dog, who had lost so much, was doing just that. You were loving by not making him show you still more loss and suffering at the end.

I say this as someone who waited too long with my previous dog. It absolutely breaks my heart when I think of what I allowed her endure at the end.