It is sad when an animal passes-away. We had our dear rottweiler from 3 months old to 14 years when we put him to sleep. He had Hip displacie which is common in big dogs. It was hard to cope with our lives since he was a family to us. wherever we travel by sea, by land or air, he came with us. We cremated him and got his ashes ....whenever we come to the same place out of country, we bring along part of his ashes and always went to the place he sitted before we put him to sleep on fronting the Mediterranean Sea.