My sympathies too Colin, as we took a decision to, as soon as we settled here to adopt a dog and, as we have always preferred older dogs, we have been through just this trauma no less than 8 times in the last 21 years.
Since the death of our last, Tosca, last year we have only had fosters but any adopters who come forward for them will have a very high bar to cross before we will relinquish them. That would be the time for a decision on our part.
I know of Wiccaweys and Border Collie Trust and Valgraysā¦there may be othersā¦
My sincerest condolences on your loss Colinā¦itās the hardest thing about loving them 
But against that our furry four legs give us reasons to get up in the morningā¦reasons to laugh out loud every day and reasons to carry on when the world around us seems to have gone insaneā¦
He was and still is (in the next realm) beautifulā¦
It never gets any easier and as you get older, so do your pets. Iāve reached the age where I am starting to lose pets at the rate of a couple a year, which will increase every year. I recently had to have my beloved 14 year old Poggy put to sleep to stop him suffering as he went into heart failure. Last year he was fit and hunting rabbits. This year heās buried beneath a rose named āMemoriesā in my garden.
Heās the last of a whole litter and their mother. The mother was abandoned by some council tenants who did a flit and left her behind. A plain black shorthaired cat. RSPCA were called and said they didnāt want her because plain black cats take up a kennel for too long. He was sure sheād get fed by hunting or the neighbours. Weeks later the mother had a litter of kittens in the neighbourās shed. RSPCA were called again and promised to come out to check them in a few weeks. Which they did. When asked if they would take them, the neighbour was told to wait until the kittens were weaned and heād come for them. When asked about the mother, again he refused but said that if she insisted, when the kittens were weaned he come for them and put the mother to sleep in his van. Thatās when a friend called me and I went the next day to collect them all. One plain black mother , 1 long haired black kitten, 2 short hair blue cats (one of which was Poggy)and one long haired blue. Kittens were weaned, everyone got neutered and they lived with me until they died.
Apparently the RSPCA man was furious when he went to collect he kittens which would have turned a quick profit for them, and found them gone 
This only adds to the horror stories that Iāve heard, which is why I NEVER give to the RSPCA.
The RSPCA is not a profit making organisationā¦?
So very sad, pets are always part of the family
Are you sure? A few years ago, when you could go onto the charities commission website and look, they had Ā£81 million. There was public outrage and they were close to losing their charity status. So they reorganised it. Now, the RSPCA on the site is split into every separate shop and every separate rehoming centre and itās almost impossible to discover how much the RSPCA is worth. Sadly they kill anything which wonāt be rehomed quickly. If thatās not making a profit I donāt know what is. Like the GSDs thy shot in the head with a bolt gun, claiming they were too vicious. This despite GSD specialist rescues volunteering to take them all. Despite the fact that to use a bolt gun, it had to be placed touching the head which would not be possible with a vicious and struggling dog.
I have been involved in rescue for around 40 years. Believe me, the RSPCA is a profit making organisation. Why not go and look at the link I provided?
If it is a profit making body then who gets the profit? No-one. They have no shareholders or owners. They plough money back into the organisation, into a reserve fund which all charities must have, into their staff pension fund etc etc. It is not inherently wrong to have money. And they are not making money by selling animals, only from merchandise.
I did open your link and closed it again as seemed to be no more than a series of sad and unfortunate anecdotes. There is a lot of cruelty in the food industry so I donāt feel criticising a body that is doing some good is appropriate. Of course they could do better. But at least they do something.
And as for euthanising domestic animals I see little alternative in the UK as the demand for rehoming pets is too low. And this year it will get worse as ownership has rocketed with covid, and many of these animals will be abandoned.
I prefer to support the French organisation which is focused on farm cruelty.
Well Iām saddened but not surprised that you didnāt investigate any of the facts on the website because you prefer to believe what you choose to believe. I must admit to being continually surprised that people tend not to want to see the full picture before making up their mind. The RSPCA in reality does little. It chases money. Had you decided you wanted to do some research, youād have discovered this. Still I fully understand that this is the easiest way.
You might have learned that the famous RSPCA āred tractor schemeā doesnāt mean that checks are made, or regular inspections. The farmer pays a subscription to be in the scheme and several of them have been caught abusing their animals very badly. Iāve long supported IFAW.
The RSPCA donāt even prosecute abusers. The police do that. They have no power of arrest even if they read people bogus meaningless ārightsā. They donāt even have power of entry. I was hassled every year and kept telling them to feck off. Same as Iād tell any charity worker civilian to do the same if they demanded to come into my home.
You misunderstood my point about euthanasia. They did it with a bolt gun after saying that the dogs were so vicious nobody could get near them, which was clearly a lie and despite GSD rescue UK offering to come and collect all the dogs and rehabilitate those who could be.
But I get it. You donāt want to investigate because you like the RSPCA and if you found out some unpalatable truths, itād upset your equilibrium.
I know two regional dog wardens that do not speak highly of them at all.
You are making huge assumptions here. I donāt actually have a fixed view on the RSPCA. In policy terms I feel they are too closely rooted in the middle class, middle England/Home counties, countryside alliance circles. However, some local groups do good work locally. Although it saddens me that they attract more donations than humanitarian causes and play on a mawkish strand of the British psyche. However they are not a profit making organisation in the commonly accepted definition of this terms.
But I did read the link you provided and it came across extremely badly in so many ways. So did not persuade me at all. Vituperative diatribe rarely works well as a campaign stance.
Now I live in France I support what I consider to be a more impressive group, L214.
Sorry to hear this, Colin, but glad you were able to be with him on his final journey.
You will have lots of great memories of Eric.
This is so true, and with all mine who have departed at the vets (if only us humans could have this choice when it all gets too much) where possible I have always held them tight and whispered constantly in their ears between the first and second injections. I hope they can hear me and be eased by that, or maybe it is just for me to feel better. Whichever it is though, I do. 
Sad news. On my way home in the car a week ago I saw a cat lying in the road, killed by a car, and still warm. She was a homely-looking tabby with a collar and was tattooed and I was sure she would be missed.
I was close to home so knocked on a few neighboursā doors but with no luck. I took her home wondering what to do after leaving her comfortably wrapped up in my workshop. The tattoo was unreadable.
I wish I could have knocked on a few more doors, but there were too many, including what amounted to an estate of new houses.
This evening, dark and raining, there was a knock on my door, and it was my next-door neighbour with a young couple and young daughter, who were searching for their missing cat. They were new to the neighbourhood having moved recently into a newly built house. The young woman had a handful of A4 plastic-wrapped leaflets which sheād printed with a large photo of her cat, her address, phone number and so on.
The cat Iād found was her missing pet cat. It was a difficult quite emotional moment for both of us. She wanted to see where Iād found her cat, so I walked her down the road to show her, both of us blubbering there and back. She was very upset.
Sheād raised her kitten Eden to be a 14-year-old well-loved member of the family. Her husband said heād bury her in their garden, and I said Iād send them a photo and video from my car cam.
Sad news but with closure for them, and for me!
Ahā¦ poor baby lost in a new neighbourhood.
While in her home she showed me their Christmas tree which had a little Santa Claus sitting on top with her catās name EDEN printed across Santaās belly. A very special Santa Claus. How sadā¦
one good thing is she had 14 happy years with a loving family, it still doesnāt help the pain inside though.
