Given the similarities between Jip and Dora, the dog's growing weakness doesn't bode well for Dora; in fact, it foreshadows her own approaching death. Dora seems to sense this, since she reacts with such distress to the idea that Jip is growing old. Interestingly, however, she rejects the idea of adopting a new dog, choosing instead to focus on happy memories of Jip, which also happen to correspond to memories of David's courtship. Although Dora's illness may technically be the result of childbirth, it's hard to escape the sense that a part of her has simply lost the will to live; she seems less interested in the future than the past, and especially in what was likely the happiest period of her life—the time just after meeting David but before actually marrying him.