I'm going to let my brain fester on it for a week, and then I'll try to put pen to paper.

I'd been making plans for when he retires, where I'll find my next job. Now I'm thinking about if it's my responsibility to help the new boss to develop into as good of boss as he can be, I'm not sure how long they'll get to work side by side, or even if this guy will take the position (the company doesn't pay the most). I'm also worried they'll play nice while my boss is around, then transfer everything we do closer to the companies home base (4-5 states away from our location)

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

Truly I sympathize with your puppy story. We picked a breed that was known for their good health, 19 months in cancer never before seen in the breed stole him from us. Now we're responsible for the asterisk in the breeds otherwise marvelous health write-up. That was so sudden and painful, it shouldn't happen to anyone. I hope you hear that it was a misdiagnosis, barring that I wish you the strongest of steeled heart.

The anticipation is going to not wear well with me. I can understand why he's resigned. I can't understand why he's at work,(early on in my employment he told me how his wife had agreed to come second to his work, and I respected that at the time), and I know it's not the first nor second time he's has this sentence put in front of him, but it's the first time he's resigning himself to not taking the most aggressive approaches. And I know I'm not in any position to make judgements, and I know there are dozens of people who will be more affected by this than me (though I do think I spend more time with him than anyone else in his life). If he doesn't want to pursue the most aggressive treatments I wish he would spend his days with his family, or not at work, I'll never have the drive he has, and I think it'll only be more aggressive as we continue, and it may be my millennial outlook but fuck there's more important things than work.