Nursing Home for Dogs. . .

My view on aging animals, is that if the dog is not able to have a "quality" life with you, then for goodness sake, be humane and euthanize. Obviously, it seems that these dogs are "able" (in the article below). Isn't it sad though, that when Fido gets a bit long in the tooth, he is sluffed off for someone else to nurture, wouldn't home care (obviously these people could afford it) be more apropos? A person I knew, had a terrier, it was blind, toothless, deaf, and spent it's days in a play pen full of doodle. When asked "why don't you put it down?", she was angry. The dog, managed to escape (did I mention that it could only walk in circles?) one dark night and was AWOL for many hours. The dog was found in a remote hole in a field a day later. My personal theory is that the dog was trying to find a place to die. A few months later, they did decide to put the dog down, and the person buried her dog in the back yard in a large storage container (Rubbermaid), with her other pets that had previously passed away. She said she liked the idea of the grave site being portable, in case they moved, the dogs and cats could move with them. How "Martha Stewart". . . the grave site is sealed, weatherproof and portable. . . it's a "good thing". http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070613/K061331AU.html Japan to open first nursing home for its aging dog population Published: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:18 PM ET Canadian Press TOKYO (AP) - Japan has a new nursing home for a swiftly greying population - dogs. The country's first nursing home for dogs comes with round-the-clock monitoring by veterinarians and a team of puppies to play with the aging pooches to help them keep fit, a pet products company said Wednesday. Owners pay the equivalent of $850 Cdn a month to keep their dogs at the Soladi Care Home, which opens Friday, according to a joint release by Soladi Co. and the Endo Veterinary clinic in Tochigi, eastern Japan. The home can accept 20 dogs at a time and will feed them specially fortified food. Researchers say that a boom in pet ownership in Japan, coupled with better health care and a more balanced diet, has led to a surge in elderly pets in Japan. That has spurred doting owners to turn to vitamins, aromatherapy and even acupuncture to help their companions through their old age.