Chance is gone. At about 7:15 tonight he took his last breath. We were with him as he passed.
He'd been declining for a few weeks but today he was in really bad shape and I knew he wouldn't be with us much longer. About a half hour before APGIL was due home from work, Chance (who had been lying in one spot all morning) got up and waited for him in the kitchen. When he didn't come home at the expected time, he went into our bedroom and laid on the floor by APGIL's side of the bed.
We were going to wait to take him to the vet tomorrow, but he'd been struggling all day and when he tried to stand and collapsed we knew he was in a lot of pain. We took him to the emergency care clinic and there we made the decision to end his suffering. And as we sat around him, our hands in his fur and telling him what a good boy he was and how much we loved him, he passed on.
I'm glad we had him for the short amount of time we did. Even when he was being a bad dog by acting out when we had to leave him alone, he was still being a good dog. He did it because he missed his humans. I don't know if we will ever find a dog who was so great to take camping and out on hikes. He was friendly and liked by everyone who met him.