Anyone that has watched their old friend, their old trusted dog, grow old knows the feeling.  It is part of us dying.  Someone that has accepted us completely is now sliding into the abyss, an abyss we must all slide into.  And we can only accept it and know it is part of a bigger swirl of atoms and electrons of which we are only a small part.  Goodbye, my friend.  May I say thank you and goodbye each day that you last on this planet next to my side.