I love Dogs me...

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I remember you writing of seeing similar sights over the years, Rocky. Good you know the old magic's still there.  🦌

When I did it before I was doing the whole woodsman thing all over the county & saw some spectacular sights, the hunting Goshawk being the most breathtaking & spectacular-fleeting yet memorable. Now it’s more for the Dogs & me to wake up & get our nature fix. Thanks for jogging my memory Tinster👍🏻

We had two BC's until last year, big brother and much younger step sister. We had to have him put down last August, whilst away in the caravan, at a local vets. We'd had him since he was 5, last year he was 16 and it was becoming a struggle for him to get up and walk. He laid down one morning and just could get up at all. 

We had him out for a bit of a walk a couple of months before, taking it slow for him. He had got a few hundred yards down a track and collapsed down and refused to move. I couldn't get down in my saloon, but I managed to get someone with a 4x4 to help by running him back to my car. He was far too heavy for us two alone to lift, without the help of the 4x4 owner.  

Heartbreaking H, it’s so hard to deal with loss of a beloved Dog. It’s good you got help & was there at the end, very sad times.

Sorry to hear that, H1000. His time had come but he'll have left a huge gap in your lives.

 Sorry to read of your loss, harry. We too know how much of a loss he will be to you both.

Thanks All.

I was quite wary of him when we first got him, he looked as if he might be bad tempered, but not a bit of it, just a big softy and could be quite timid if you remonstrated with him. He loved kids and was great with pups. The first time week took him out, was in the car to Otley just for a wander round. I opened the car door ready with the lead and he shot past me and took off at full speed through the alleyways in the town centre, me trying to catch him. I eventually caught him, having made his way into a pub :-)

I learned never to open the door wide again, without blocking him in with my body.

He was always a problem to try to stop escaping from the garden, it's quite large, with plenty of places to hide - so you never knew whether he had escaped again, or was hiding somewhere in the garden. If he had escaped, he could be away for hours, taking himself on a wander round the village. Once out on one of his jaunts, even if you could find him he would completely ignore you and walk past with a determined look on his face.

I spent quite a bit increasing the height and security of our fences, but he was unstoppable. One frosty morning, he managed to impale himself on our front gate and had to be rushed to the vet. Obviously he had skidded on take-off and landed on the spikes of the gate. 

Sometime later he suffered mange, on the side of one of his back legs, I didn't know what it was, never having come across it before - it's a mite which buries itself in the skin and causes tremendous itching, they scratch to the point of bleeding. I researched it and decided it might be mange and a mix of hydrogen peroxide and borax might fix it, dabbed all over the area and allowed to dry. The scratching stopped immediately and within a week he was completely healed up.

The reason I mentioned it is that his younger step sister began the same constant scratching this week, but on her belly. It was raw yesterday, so I guessed mange again and made the same mix up again - with the same result, no more scratching and it is beginning to heal.   

He sounds like quite a character, Harry.

I was once told that making the heart wrenching decision to let your pup go is 'the last kind act you can do for your dog'.  Those words have stuck with me ever since and are so true.

I lost my old girl last August Harry1000, and know your pain, but you did right by your old lad. 

I think about all my dogs, past and present, every day, and will for the rest of my life.  Life without them isn't the same!  The loss is horrific, but it's something you have to accept when taking on animals isn't it. 

I always say 'no more' I can't take the pain, but I'm not me without one...think it's in my DNA!

Straight from the heart of a Dog lover👏🏻👏🏻. You mirror the feelings of all Dog lovers, they become family, family that don’t disappoint nor ignore but they do hang on our every word & movement. They’re a gift & no one but another Dog lover will ever understand the pain of our loss. We all share your DNA👍🏻