My husband is a doggy person. We've lost two dogs in the last 11 years. One a year ago in July. We had to make the decision to put them to sleep. Very hard.
I have a mixed lab/shepherd that is very good at understanding many of my sentences. Like...."let's go in the house."
Koontz and his wife don't have children, so I guess they decided on a dog. I think he started putting more dog stories in his books after he got his dog, Trixie.
My husband and I had a neurotic little cocker spaniel the first 11 years. She was constantly sick. She was allergic to everything and she was on prednisone all the time.
I suspect that the prednisone made her a little more nuts than she was to start with.
We went with a Black Lab after that. She was a one in a life time dog. She has been gone almost a year but I still miss her.
When she got sick that last time. The Vet put in an iv and sent us home with the med to put her down . He thought she might have about 2 good weeks left but she didn't last that long.
When it became obvious that all we were doing was stretching out her death we did the deed. It was awful. I wish we had let the vet do it, but we just wanted to keep her as long as we could.
We now have 2 Lab mixes. We rescued rather than going to a breeder. Both of my gals needed a home and I still had plenty of room to love.