Frank. It got to a point a year or two ago that I knew it could be any decline could be it. But she did pretty good. Was with me last summer and really minimal problems for an old dog. Used vitually no pain meds, could walk and do steps right up to the end. I was giving her pentosin4 for the joints and even as recent as Wed she could almost make the leap from the sidewalk onto the wagoneers back seat by herself. Saturday's walks were really slow and she'd been losing apetite for about 3 weeks now. each week we'ld go in and get a boost with a shot of some sort of steroid but yesterday she was having trouble breathing and couldn't lay down with comfort.