This is really a morbid thread and your experience with the Labrador is an awful one. I am glad you got past that, although I am sure you didn't completely overcome it. I know I wouldn't. Having many pets means watching many many pets dieing. This is the only downside I can think of in owning pets. I remember a very sad episode, right before my final exam in college. My cat gave birth before the due date and the kittens were very small, like a finger small. They couldn't feed themselves and even if they would have found the strength to do it, the mother didn't have milk because it was an old cat.
I took all the kittens in my lap and tried to feed them cow milk with an eyedropper. It worked for a while but the next day, after I fed them and I was holding them in my lap so I could keep them warm, they started to pass away one by one. There was really nothing I could do and I tried to blame it on nature, but that didn't help. So I just sat there watching them fading away. My heart was broken. I don't want to go through that kind of thing again or put any of my animals through that so from now on I will have all my old cats sterilized so this won't happen again. Actually I have been doing it since, even if it's an expensive intervention, their health is more important.
