Strauss passed away on Sunday the 13th. He was roughly 16 years old. The kidney disease and intestinal cancer finally took him from us. He was with us when he went so that's a positive. He came out of another room to where we were. He was stumbling around and he plopped down in front of us. We tried to make him comfortable. He started having wretching fits and convulsions. We took him to the emergency vet. Elaine had him in her arms wrapped in a blanket and was telling him she was with him. On the way over to the vet he passed away in her arms. Although, that sounds brutal, it is probably the best way to have it happen. He decided to go on his terms and didn't ask us to have to make a decision for euthanization. We continued to the vet and after saying goodbye we gave his body to the vet for cremation. We will keep his ashes. They also will make a paw print in clay by pushing his paw into it. We got a similar keepsake when Dylan passed away in '06.

View a Strauss gallery here...

In other depressing news, Elaine is in Columbus waiting for her terminally ill father to die. He has being declining steadily over the last few months. She got a call at 4:20 AM on Tuesday that her father was convulsing and lost consciousness. She took a flight out there later that morning but he leveled off and is essentially in a coma. She has said her goodbyes to him but he is hanging on. At this point it would be better for everyone if he passed. He is skin and bones and the kidney tumors are winning. This is similar to the situation with my mother. There is zero hope for recovery and death would bring relief to him and his family.