Goodbye Sweet Claire

Today we had to say goodbye to our sweet Clairey. She was Born May 5, 1999 and died today, December 15, 2007. She was so dear to our family. Her life was too short. Everywhere I turn I am reminded of her. From the mess left under Shawny's chair with no Clairey to clean them up to no one there to greet me at the door. I know I will have a hole in my heart for a very long time. This has been a very painful day. She will always be missed. She was a very good dog. Claire with a 12 year old Santa. Can you tell we didn't have children yet. We must have been desperate, bringing our dog to see Santa:)
If you are wondering what happened to her, here it is. We returned home from Muskegon Sunday night and Claire appeared to be doing fine. Monday she kinda laid low. Tuesday I said, "I don't think Claire is feeling to well." She just kinda laid around. Not much spunk. Wednesday I noticed she wasn't eating or drinking much and her urine was kinda dark against the snow. Thursday I knew something was wrong. I encouraged her to eat a little meat and gave her a Tylenol (Bad move by the way, Tylenol is toxic to dogs). I also gave her a bath and a hair cut. She looked nice and I was sure it would help her feel better. Still no improvement. Sleeping a lot, no eating or drinking and really dark urine, no other symptoms. I let her sleep a lot on Friday but around 6pm picked her up to give her some love and noticed her belly was yellow. Not kinda yellow but really yellow. At that point I could see all of her skin was yellow. I instantly knew this was an emergency. We had to wait to see the vet until Saturday at 8am. When we saw the vet we were told Claire was in severe liver failure. The costs of treating her were to high and the chances of her being cured were slim. After many many tears we made the painful decision to have her put to sleep. I have never had to endure this before and don't know if my heart could handle doing it again. It was one of the most painful decisions I have ever had to make. I am just thankful Claire isn't in anymore pain and that the live failure hadn't progressed any further. From what I was told, the later stages of liver failure are much worse. Lyle dug tearfully her a grave in the semi frozen ground behind our house. She was so loved and we will miss her dearly. Now I must head to bed without letting the dog out and having her follow me to my bedroom to sleep. I'm so sad.