“My grandfather is 93. All of his friends are dead. His second wife is failing mentally. He doesn’t work anymore and is generally cooped up at home. From the outside, it seems that longevity is more of a curse than a blessing.”
It’s like owning a Doberman. Dobermans have a lifespan of about nine years because of bad breeding practices many years ago, I will also note that they are trying to breed those problems out of Dobermans but I don’t know how far along they are... anyway, Dobermans live to be about 9 some people think that’s bad or sad but if you think about it - if a dog lives to be 14 or 15 the last four or five years of their lives they’re not in Optimum Health and they might be dependent upon the veterinarian to keep them vital at a large cost. And then they die pain ridden terrible deaths.
So, what’s better? A doberman living a full active life for 9 years or to live a full active life for 9 years followed by 5 or 6 years of failing health as in other breeds?
I really had to get on my sister a number of years back because she would nurse along dogs that she had that were being eaten up by cancer (mostly) and after about the 3rd one and thousands of dollars down the drain she realized that she was only keeping them alive for herself and not for the animals benefit which is probably not in the best interest of the dear pets.
I've been around dogs all my life. I've never owned a dog but have enough OJT while growing up and dog sitting for relatives over the years to comment. My observation is big dogs have a life span of around 10 years +/- of 2 years. Big dogs go down fairly quick do to cancer or hip failure when thier time is up.