<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp8025d0aayahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Oh Julie, my heart breaks for you.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Reading your description of Guinness was like reliving Rolph's last months. Towards the end I couldn't decide if it was time and I kept waiting for my once sparkle-eyed, joyful, naughty boy to tell me.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I asked advice, I read Dr Google, I cried as his pleasure in life diminished and diminished, but he still ate heartily and enjoyed his wheels. Then dementia set in.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I sat down and wrote two lists - his needs and mine. For all the laundry, the belly bands, the poop in the house, hauling him in and out of the car and up and down my townhouse stairs, so long as he still had joy in his life it was worth it.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">One day the early evening terrors started, his version of the dementia, he came up to me and looked into my eyes with fear and confusion. He'd had enough. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">It <span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">still</span></span> was terrible to let him go. I still miss him every day. But if I put myself in his place, I would have wanted him to do the same for me.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">And the soundest and kindest advice I can give you is better a week too early, than a day too late.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Sending heart-healing drool</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Sally with Hettie, in the UK</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div></div></body></html>