I like finding dog license, they are one of my favorite finds.
I once found 7 in the same hole. They dated from 09-41. It was in an old school yard and Im guessing one of the kids had a collection on a string, and lost them.
I've never had an old dog wonder off to die, but I believe that happened to a couple of our old cats. I never found them.
A dog story... We had an old dog that was part Husky and part yellow Lab. It got to the point where it could not be trusted around kids or strangers. So I put up a 20x20 kennel fence for it, instead of letting it run loose. It was a good watch dog. Our lane is about a quarter of a mile long, and as soon as a car left the black top and started up our gravel lane, the dog would begin barking. We always new when someone was coming. So, one day it was threatening a thunder storm as I was getting home from work. The ridge cap on my barn was leaking, and I would only remember that after a rain. That day I thought about it before the rain. So I sat up a ladder and climbed up on top the roof. After investigating the problem I realized I need a hammer, so I headed for the ladder to crawl down. Getting on the ladder wasn't real easy. As I was sitting there trying to decide how to do it, the dog started barking. I thought.... cool, someone is coming, I will have them hold the ladder or bring the hammer up the ladder to me. The dog continued to bark, and sure enough I soon seen my wife driving up the lane. She pulled in the driveway and parked just below me. She got out of the car, looked up and said " When did the dog die?" I said what? And she repeated it. I looked over, and sure enough the dog was lying in the middle of the kennel, dead. " Just now" I said. Imagine that