Alain Delon's Dog

My gran did the same with her corgi. I was too young to offer to take him (15)

They were right to disobey - if the dog is obviously grieving like Grey Friars Bobby, then would be the time to have it put to sleep. Not before.

I just read some of his life, his sons are very obsessed with money, possibly he feared leaving his dog for his sons to decide
it’s care. Poor man, so very ill.

I would say there are quite a few red flags if you read the info about his life.

Anniebach

So he is a control freak, selfish, arrogant, !

Yes...

My present dog, a Jack Russell, is a different character from my German Shepherd. My Jack Russell although he is aged, would settle well enough with another person if I died.

So he is a control freak, selfish, arrogant, !

Just cos you're dead, you can't be selfish.
My aged aunt asked me to do this. I refused. Lucky cat went to live with someone nice.

If he knew he was dying why didn't he do it before he died instead of leaving a silly condition in his will? I suspect he was a control freak and thought he could control people from beyond the grave. There are people around like this but they will all go to their eternal judgement I suppose.

A friend of my mother's request that her dog be euthanised before her terminal cancer death. The vet came to the house and the dog died in her arms. The dog was only 5 and my mother had looked after it while the friend was in hospital. We could have looked after the little dog but this was the friend's last request. Still haunts me 60 years later. Funnily enough, I found a picture sketched by a famous local artist in a local antique shop of this little dog as the artist was a friend of the lady who died. It is now framed on my wall for me to remember the happy days spent playing with the dog as a child.

That's no reason to selfishly take your companion with you Anniebach

He thought of his grave as a lonely place ,

Of course he didn't know best. Unless the dog had no possible hope of adoption and was likely to starve to death, how can killing the poor thing be in it's best interests. Delon left a vast fortune and he could've easily stipulated in his will continued care of the dog by the beneficiaries.

Delon was exercising his patriarchal privilege, which men are all too fond of. He saw the dog as a possession, not a companion. If he couldn't have it, nobody could. That's not love, that's selfish arrogance.

No - it was a selfish request. Puts me in mind of the ancient Hindu practice of Suttee which required a widow to demonstrate devotion to her deceased husband by burning herself to death on his funeral pyre.

I’d rely on the fact that his family were the ones who didn’t want the dog euthanised, and they are the ones who will be looking after it. However loyal a dog is, with people it knows love it, as they clearly do, after a period of grieving it will settle down and enjoy the rest of its natural life - they live 12 years on average, some up to 15, so should have more life to enjoy yet.

But at least it should be given a chance to see how it copes Oreo

sodapop

Maybe we should all be euthanized when we reach our three score years and ten Oreo

We’re talking about a dog here, but you knew that.
A dog is fantastically loyal, especially certain breeds and the loss of the loving owner to it can send it crazy or into massive depression.Ten is old age for a large dog in any case.

Cats pine too. My friend has been trying to rehome a poor cat whose owner has died. The cat is grieving and won't eat or settle. She has now decided to keep it rather than make it move again.

Crikey, who did he think he was, an ancient Egyptian?😳

Some dogs have an immense will to live. Toby was rescued after living in an awful shelter in Romania for 10 years. He is approximately 16 years old, an Anatolian Shepherd/Lab mix.
If he can survive all that l want him to go on for as long as he is happy and healthy. Hopefully with me but if not looked after properly.
Age has nothing to do with it.

Maybe we should all be euthanized when we reach our three score years and ten Oreo

I agree with his family not to put Loubo to sleep. I have read that they are keeping him within the family.
My previous boy, a border collie was very attached to me but it was in my will that should something happen my best friend would take him. Finn loved her very much. Since he died, she has now agreed to take Toby.
Neither Finn nor Toby would survive in kennels or going back to rescue as they came from abusive situations.
I can rest easy, knowing Toby will be loved and safe.

Caleo

I sympathise with Alain Delon because I had a German Shepherd a similar breed to Malinois, who was very attached to me.
When I had to be hospitalised for a major operation I had to leave her in carefully chosen kennels. When I got her back she had lost her mind.

I was thinking along the same lines, and anyway isn’t 10 a reasonable old age for a good sized dog?

He was 88 years old, perhaps a little confused

No he should not have wanted the dog euthanised. Very strange request imo