I too am sorry for your loss and am grieving with you. I know how you feel.
In December I lost my closest companion (lab mix) after only six short but wonderful years. It's funny because I had been preparing myself to lose my 14 year old beagle that will turn 15 next month, but in no way expected to lose my Daisy quite so soon.
My grandmother unexpectedly went into the hospital on a Sunday night and I put Daisy up around 11 PM to head to the ER with my grandmother. The next morning I went to work and came home for lunch on an unusually warm spring-like December day and noticed Daisy sunning (I thought) in her kennel. I returned to work and came home around 4 and she was lying in her kennel sleeping and I thought I would slip up to her and give her a surprise wake-up. It was very unusual for me to be able to walk all the way up to her without her noticing, but I could see her breathing so I knew she must be fine. I reached for her and she did not move and was totally non responsive. I picked all 90 pounds of her up and placed her in the front seat of my truck and drove like hell all the way to the vet making a call en route to warn them. She began having seizures as I got her in the door and died shortly thereafter.
The vet only concluded that she had likely ingested something the day before and I have come to believe that she either found some poison or someone deliberately poisoned her.
It breaks my heart every time I think about how things may have turned out had I checked on her more closely that morning or at lunch. Daisy went everywhere I went and we've spent many a day in the woods. As Smokey-Ray (the beagle) is too feeble to go tromping around with me I hope to soon find a German Shorthair to be my new companion.
