RIP Hero....

We've had our dog Hero for almost 4 years and today we have to put him down. :(

Hero was from a rescue society here and originally we had gone in to get a small dog. Hero is anything but a small dog. He's almost 100 lbs and only has 3 legs. Because of his 3 legged-ness, he has arthritis in his other front leg. Because of the arthritis, he has been in pain and it's gotten to the point that he can't climb the stairs very easily and since we live in a house that has stairs just to get into the house, well....you get the point. Yes, we could have given him pain meds and all that, but would it have increased or decreased his quality of life? I believe (as well as the family) that it would have decreased his life and I don't want to put him through any more pain then he already is in. We had planned for tomorrow, but because of issues at the vet's office, we had it changed to today. So Hero will be greatly missed by all who knew him.