Farewell to a furry friend

About 10 years ago, I had a friend that was injured. He had a dog named Jake that he had no idea what he was going to do with while he was in the hospital and recovering. So, I volunteered to "watch" him until my friend was ready. Jake came to our house and immediately made himself at home, him and Oscar became friends right away. He was a little hard to walk and had a lot of spunk but was the sweetest brown eyed boy. He would lean into you so he could be as close as possible to you and lay his head in your lap and stare up at you with his sweet face. Needless to say, our temporary arrangement ended up being permanent and Jake became a member of our home. He was there when we brought Kylie home from the hospital. We came home and laid her on the floor so he could introduce himself and he was immediately smitten! He adored her, he would pace when she cried and lay beside her. He felt the same way about Kiersten when we brought her home. As they grew with him, they could climb on him, lay on him, dress him up, anything they wanted to do, he was more than willing to comply. You could not ask for a better dog with kids. Even when my nephew Dylan came along, Jake was eager to offer himself up to Dylan as a jungle gym, pillow, you name it. About 6 months ago, Jake had a seizure completely out of the blue. We took him to the vet and they thought that maybe he got into something and had an allergic reaction. We thought and thought and searched the house for something different that he could have gotten into so we could get rid of it but came up with nothing. A couple of months later he had another one, we again took him to the vet and this doctor immediately took a liking to Jake. He spent the night with him and told us that he believed Jake had a tumor and it could be months, years, there was no telling. A couple of days ago, he started leaning a little to one side....we were concerned. Then when I came down the steps on Sunday morning, I knew something was really wrong. He was wagging his tail and happy to see me as always but he couldn't barely walk and his eyes could not focus on me. With a sinking heart I called Chip down and he took him to the vet. That is when the bad news came, the tumor was so large, it was pushing on his brain and there was no turning back. I couldn't let him suffer, he had given us all he had for so many years and he deserved way better. So now Jake is running around in doggie heaven, tumor free. Our house feels so empty and strange without him. It will take a while to get used to not seeing him at the door when we get home, to not hear him guarding the house all night while we slept, but I know he is guarding us from his new home.