I'm sorry about loss of your faithful dog.

I'm sorry that you have had to put out the effort to see him. He's taking you for granted waaaaaay too much. It's wrong. I'm sorry. You need to have a frank conversation about how you feel. And don't use the dog's death as the lightning rod for this. It will be a red herring for him and he will believe you are slightly irrational about this if you bring the dog into this discussion. This is about you and him and how you have real needs also. Be prepared that this might jeoporadize your relationship. But life is short and you want your time spent well.

Dearie and I split time across 2 cities now, since I accepted a job offer. We take turns travelling, etc. He's retired 10 yrs. ago, I'm not. Yea sure it's complicated, but we love to make the effort to see and spend time with one another.