Photo of Dog's Last Meal Brings Reddit Community to Tears

Lennox the Boxer may have lost the battle with cancer, but he got the dish of his dreams before heading to the Rainbow Bridge.

When you have to euthanize your beloved dog, you want all the snuggles and playtime you can get. But you have to think, what does the dog want? One man who had a cancer-ridden Boxer named Lennox knew exactly what his dog wanted: a turkey leg covered in bacon, laid on a pillow of rice next to two fat sausages and (from the looks of it) a solid hunk of bread. 

An epic last meal, in other words. 

Reddit user Nikolaoss posted a photo of the feast to the site yesterday, and it tore up the rankings (along with a few Redditors -- many comments about crying in the comments). Later he posted further explanation. Lennox was his roommate's dog, who had reached the end of his battle with cancer. 

"He has severe cancer and arthritis," he wrote. "After many surgeries, which include a tumor on his left ear which you can see had surgery on. Now there is a huge growth on his left shoulder that you can see in the pic, he can barely walk on that side, and barely gets up anymore." 

Nickolaoss also included a video. Lennox enjoyed his last meal very much, it seems. Watch for yourself: 

Many Redditors expressed sympathy for the dog and shared their own stories. One user, soapage, had this to say:  

"Well Nikolaoss tell your roomate for me this: I know a lot of people here don't believe in heaven, but I think we all believe there is somewhere to go. He shall be put to sleep and his suffering will pass. In an instant his energy will burst out of his body with all the love that has been poured on him for years and it will be free. Most likely he will chase some squirrels and visit the cosmos, but I am pretty sure most of the time he will stick around with his human ... waiting the exact moment to greet him with a nice face lick on the other side."

In another post, Nikolaoss thanked the community for its compassion. "Thanks for all the comments, my roommate appreciates it a lot. This post isn't meant to be sad in any way. He lived like an absolute boss all his life! And the meal reflects that!"

Lennox was put to sleep on Wednesday. Nickolaoss said he passed away peacefully. 

Via the Huffington Post

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Community Areas of Dogster and Catster to Close March 3

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of Dogster and Catster in March.

Dear Dogsters,

Today we are announcing some changes at Dogster and Catster. While the Dogster and Catster sites will continue to exist as daily magazines that serve the worldwide community of dog and cat families, it is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of the sites effective March 3. This means that members of the Dogster Community will no longer be able to see Pet Profiles, Forums, Groups, Answers, Local Listings, Photo Galleries, Games, Quizzes, Adoption, Dog of the Day, Diary Central, the Gift store, and the Community homepage past that date. 

I am no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of Dogster and Catster, but I am writing this to you as one of the founders, as one of the developers who built the features of the sites, as the first community manager, and as a member (Trouble, Porter). Ten years of my life have been about Dogster and Catster and I’ve invested a lot of time, money, sweat and tears. It’s been a great ride and I have no regrets. But all good things must come to an end.

We originally created Dogster because there was no place on the internet to share the joy of having a dog or a cat member of the family. There was no place to share tips on taking care of the furry ones. There was no place on the internet to support each other in times of turmoil, sickness and journeys to the rainbow bridge. We, and I truly mean “we” in the community sense, created this space. We’ve made great friends, told inspiring stories, helped many pets find their furever homes. It was a great success and something I will remember and take pride in for the rest of my life.

That said, 10 years on the Internet is forever. There have been massive changes in the industry -- Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist when we started Dogster and Catster. Finding advertisers and developing those relationships was simpler and revenues were easier to come by in the early days. The backend technologies that power websites have been revolutionized three times over since then. It’s amazing to me that the sites we developed in 2004 and 2005 have lasted this long. But, as every regular user knows, the community areas aren’t working like they used to. Features are broken. Spammers are relentlessly invading our forums. The dog house and cat tree are starting to crumble.

SAY Media is a great company. Their hearts are in the right spot. There was a lot of pressure from financial and strategic points of view to close down the community areas of the sites three years ago. But since the sites were holding up and people loved them, they continued to keep these areas up even though it was at a cost.

At the end of the day, our parent company is all about creating great editorial brands. As the community features on Dogster and Catster degrade, as users become unsatisfied, it amplifies the fact that the Dogster and Catster community sites are not aligned with Say’s mission. It seems unwise to continue to operate them at a loss while aggravating users. Please believe us when we say we’ve gone through every possible option. Could we invest more in revamping the sites? Could we spin them off into their own or another entity? Could we leave them as is and slowly see them degrade further? The answer was “no” to all of these. We just cannot find a way that is honorable to the community, true to the business, and in good conscience.

I know many of you will be upset. I know many of you will think this is the wrong call. We’re truly sorry for that. Sometimes putting something you love to rest, while difficult, is the right thing to do. That is what we must do now with the community areas of our sites. Thank you for being the best community ever.

John Vars

Co-founder, Dogster and Catster

VP of Product, Say Media

If you have purchased a Plus subscription or zealies in the past 60 days, please email refunds@dogster.com or refunds@catster.com to be refunded. We will do our best to refund you within a week of your request.Dogster and Catster HQ will be on hand at the All-Paws group. We invite you to join the conversation and come to us with any questions over there. We’re sad too, and we’re here to listen and help as best we can.We unfortunately don’t have export functionality to help you preserve your pet pages, but we encourage you to save your photos and diary entries before March 3, when they will be taken offline.As always, you can reach us with questions, comments and concerns at support@dogster.com and support@catster.com.

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Dogster Mourns the Loss of Lucy, Our Community Hound

Today was a tough one for us at Dogster HQ. Some of us woke up to text messages from our wonderful Community Manager, Lori, telling us the time had come to send her beloved Basset, Lucy, to the bridge.

Lou, known to us as “The Pretty Little Lady” at the office, was a spunky sweetheart of a senior. At 13, she was well beyond the life expectancy of her breed, and you couldn’t tell from looking at her.

She’d suffered through glaucoma, deafness, blindness, and the removal of both eyes — but still she still kept her head up and managed daily trips down two stories of rickety steps to Lori’s backyard, where she dug and howled in sheer delight. Lor would tell me how Lou had this “secret life” out there in the garden with nothing but dirt, grass, and three dozen smells.

Lucy had her own cat. How many dogs can say that?

“Cow,” a tame-ish feral from Golden Gate Park, became an extended part of the family after many feedings, and he grew to love Lucy and call on her on most days. Lor would laugh recounting the times he’d sneak into the house at daybreak and meow and meow until Lucy stirred, and then he would purr like a wild thing and rub up against her.

Lucy loved to be carried like a baby. She was small for a Basset Hound, and her mom would scoop her up into her arms so easily and deposit her into the arms of unsuspecting co-workers. I remember that one day at our old office, when practically everyone had a turn holding Lou this way. She was completely content being adored, her paws never touching the ground.

So today is a sad one.

Lou headed to the vet’s office for that one final appointment late in the afternoon. Her final meal was grilled steak. We are heartbroken for her mom, but grateful for all the kind words our community has written for her on Dogster and on Facebook.

As soon as the news broke, I found myself suddenly googling “sympathy flowers pets” and was greeted with scores of condolence gift ideas. But everything seemed hollow and manufactured and cheap in light of this loss and I closed my browser.

Dogsters, how do you help a good friend through heartache like this? What do you do when there really, truly, are no words?

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