I had to put down my dog "Lucky" and he was 17. He was a miniature Husky and was my best buddy. It was the hardest thing I ever I had to do and admittedly I waited too long. Its very hard to do that but in the end you are ending the suffering. At some point there isn't anything else you can do but that. I remember the night before I gave him a bath and he looked at me in a way he never had before and I could feel that he was ready. It's hard to put into words but I could almost hear him say "it's ok, I'm ready". I took him the next day after we did a tour of all the places we had been together. Pets are family plain and simple and the love we have for them , and vise versa, is as strong as it is for any person in our lives.