Oh, what a sweetie. Thank you for posting this. For some reason I was picturing a little Jack Russel type. What breed was Kipper? We had lots of dogs on the farm where I grew up, and every death was difficult, but some were harder. Those special ones stay in our hearts.
I was in my 20s when I got my first dog of my own. I was so excited! Sitting in the veterinarian's waiting room for puppy shots, with little Lucy on my lap, a very large man walked in, visibly upset, carrying an ancient, grey-muzzled Chesapeake Retriever. He sat down across from me, cradling the dog in his lap, and I saw the tears running down his face. I looked down at my squirmy little puppy on my lap and it hit me that some day I probably will be doing the same thing with my girl. The image of that man has never left me. He was feeling so much pain. It matched how deeply he must have loved that dog. I can't get a new animal without thinking of that time.