Mattie was only 8...
they found a big tumor in her abdomen (she wasn't eating and was nippy at kids and/or staying away all together)...Kathy and Todd gave ok to open her up and surgeon found many more, so they decided not to wake her up.
my sister was thinking maybe she was just depressed but when an animal isn't eating, at all, to me, that means something inside is wrong. it reminds me to keep a closer eye on my animals because i can typically tell when they're feeling good and when they're not...it's just simply by their actions alone that we find out something's wrong.