Caesar was the best dog that I have ever known.  He came to live with us when he was 14 years old.  He was a purebred Rottweiler, and was very intelligent.  He had arthritis and was going deaf/blind, but he was a very happy dog right up to the end. 

We had a lot of fun with him; he liked to catch snowballs in the winter and fish in the kiddy pool that the teenagers would bring home in the summer.  They threw catfish they had caught into our little backyard kiddy pool to show to their friends, but Caesar saw it, snatched it right up and marched around the yard with that thing like it was the greatest prize ever -- then he ate it.  Nobody dared to try and take it away from him! 

When the end came we could tell it was time, as we were hauling him around our yard on a quilt most days as he was too arthritic to get up and walk.  He loved to go for rides so we loaded him up in the back of the El Camino and I drove him up to the vet's office.  It happened to be dusk, and we drove right into the sunset, just like the cowboys do in the Wild West movies. 

We buried him on a hill in Madison County next to his Rottweiler friend, Angel.  We could hardly speak his name for weeks without bawling.  I had a dream about him not too long after his passing, he was running around with a bunch of other dogs and they ran around my feet and then took off back the way they had came.  He looked so young and healthy, it was like he had come to say "Don't worry, I'm fine now!  See ya when ya get here!"