On Dogs

[Joseph_Pestell]

Not a great photo (scanned while still in glass-fronted frame). But here is our wonderdog, Mowgli. He was only about 20 months then.

Mowgli.pdf

[Colin]

Monty relaxing during the recent hot spell - yes, he had just nicked my seat and no, that's not his cuppa on the table!

[gordon s]

On 04/05/2020 at 15:26, gordon s said:

Here's our two, or should I say my wife's two. I'm under no illusion of the pecking order. Dogs first, family second and on a good day I may make third.......

 

Archie in the front, who is now 16 and Golly at the back who is 14. I daren't think about saying goodbye to either of them...

 

 

.......and then there was one....

 

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Archie this morning. 16 years of absolute pleasure and it was so hard to say farewell. He trusted us right to the end as he slipped into his final sleep.

 

RIP Old fella......You brought joy into our world and we were blessed to have you.

[skipepsi]

.

Edited August 21, 2020 by skipepsi

[gordon s]

Sincere thanks for all your support. It’s been a really tough day as the poor fella went down really quickly over a period of a few days and we both knew the time had come. Golly knows something has changed and his mood has changed considerably. He clearly senses something has happened and he won’t see his best mate again. Of course we have 100’s of pics and memories, but it can’t make up for having him here. Sixteen years is a big chunk of our lives......

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

32 minutes ago, gordon s said:

Sincere thanks for all your support. It’s been a really tough day as the poor fella went down really quickly over a period of a few days and we both knew the time had come. Golly knows something has changed and his mood has changed considerably. He clearly senses something has happened and he won’t see his best mate again. Of course we have 100’s of pics and memories, but it can’t make up for having him here. Sixteen years is a big chunk of our lives......

 

 

Both of your most recent posts caused the screen to get a bit blurry for some reason; no, it is never easy to let go. I had to put Tyger down (my cat) a few years ago and I still think of him occasionally even now. I did get another cat a year a so later (on the way home from a train show, no less!) even after mentally saying no more pets. They sure worm their way into our hearts, don't they! The sadness of their departure is there whether it is a cat or a dog.

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, gordon s said:

 

.......and then there was one....

 

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Archie this morning. 16 years of absolute pleasure and it was so hard to say farewell. He trusted us right to the end as he slipped into his final sleep.

 

RIP Old fella......You brought joy into our world and we were blessed to have you.

I am truly saddened to hear of this news, my condolences.

It’s always hard to say goodbye to a much loved companion animal and, indeed, there are some who believe that losing a pet is even more emotionally difficult to deal with than losing a close human companion (and I think they are right).

 

One thing that I have sworn to do is to have my dogs euthanised at home when it is time for them to go. It is terribly important, to me, that their last moments are spent in familiar surroundings with the people they love and trust. No matter how emotionally devastating it will be (and it will certainly be that for me), it is the very least I can do for them after so many years of happy companionship. I am fortunate inasmuch that our regular vet will provide an at home service and, failing that, a good and dear friend of Mrs iD is also a vet and will help us out come the time. Fortunately, my two beasties are in their robust middle-age and should go on for a good several years yet.

[gordon s]

Thanks iD, that was exactly our wish too, but Covid rules put a stop to that service. We sat in the garden at the vets where we’ve been going for the last 25 years. At least it was private and the sun was shining....
 

Thanks for sharing those pics, SP, they brought a welcome smile to us both.

 

 

[Winter123]

Heartbreaking for you Gordon S and I feel your loss. I had to say goodbye to my gorgeous beagle boy three weeks ago after being referred as an emergency to the animal hospital which is about an hour away from where I live. He suddenly became unwell and there was nothing they could do for him. I got to be with him for a few minutes but due to damn Covid **** I wasn't allowed to be with him at the end and had to watch from a window. I wanted to get him back to my regular vet who would have been able to facilitate me to hold him but he was just too unwell and would have suffered on the journey home. The pain is unbearable at times and I will miss him forever.....

[ianwales]

Hi all

 

 

 This is Merlin our Border Collie, lovely dog who lived to the ripe old age of 18, a very intelligent boy who used to dislike whistles and loud noises, so if we were hoovering the house we had to shut him out the back yard, trouble was he learnt to open the back door and let himself in so we thought locking the back door would solve it, nope, he then jumped over the wall into our neighbours garden out into the back lane, down the side of the house and let himself in the front door.

 

 

Here are our current 2, Harri on the left is a Shitzu, Jack Russel, Poodle mix who my daughter named after Harry Potter, only problem was Harri is a Harriet! and the pup on the right is Luna.

 

 

A more recent photo of Luna sharing the couch with the cat who looks unimpressed, Luna is  Poodle/Beagle cross or as one pet shop owner described her, a highly intelligent idiot! Her claim to fame is that she managed to find her way onto the roof of our 3 storey house and I have the video to prove it.

 

 

 

[simontaylor484]

My little friend he is called Rolo  he is nearly 3

 

 

[tomparryharry]

It's not the size of the dog, it's the size of the heart within the dog. Wonderful photo.

[Colin]

He’s a handsome chap, and I bet he knows it!

[tomparryharry]

We sadly lost our old dog Max a few weeks back, but happily, we still have our little friend, Heidi. She's a Rottweile-Staffordshire cross, and is a wiggly little thing. Being of Rottie stock, she is a very good guard-dog, and this is a bit of an adventure, as we've never had anything else but Staffordshires.  Getting up in the middle of the night will receive a bark or two, as she sleeps at the foot of the bed.  When we bought her home, Dogs Trust said:- "She can't get up stairs, and she doesn't like being picked up." Wrong on two counts......She was massively overweight, and it's slowly coming off, but it'll take a few months yet. Here she is, out on the Monmouthshire Canal. 

[Clagsniffer]

Here’s one of my Cocker friends Brian getting ready for a day at the beach!

 

Had to walk them 11 miles to tire them out lol.

[CameronL]

I've seen previous posts in this topic about rescue dogs. We're now on our third - 

Sam - who was scared of everything but someone later described him as a "splendid dog"

Mac - who didn't know what regular feeding was and was later described by a complete stranger as "the happiest dog I've ever seen". 

And Luna - lockdown Luna who's been with us since April, spent the first year of her life in a cage, and is really having fun learning to be a dog.

 

Rescues love you more.

[iL Dottore]

Cameron, those are three lovely dogs. It must’ve been hard to say goodbye to Sam and to Mac - the photos you posted show very happy dogs indeed. In the photo, your new rescue Luna seems to be trying out her seductive “Ingrid Bergmann” look (head tilted, face slightly down, eyes looking up [as seen in Casablanca]).

What I find so utterly amazing about rescue dogs, is with love, patience and understanding these dogs end up not only bouncing back from whatever hell that was their former lives but also become so loving and trusting. You cannot help but be in awe of the resilience of these dogs.

Anyway, here’s a photo of my two (Schotty on the left, Lucy on the right) with our playdate Frida. All three are rescue dogs and all three form the BDWBA posse (Bad Dogs With Bad Attitude).

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by iL Dottore

[CameronL]

Love the BDWBA.

It's true. The way a rescue can bounce back once they realise they're loved is a delight to see. It was a real blow losing Sam then Mac, but When we lost Mac I did a bit of reading on suitable sayings and found "Dogs don't live as long as people. It's their only fault." As the pics show we gave both dogs very happy lives and are hoping we can do the same for Luna. Her personality is growing daily and it's lovely to see her turning from a timid thing into a happy dog.

[DaveyH]

Our rescued girl, Mia.   Not sure what we would have done without her during lockdown....we owe her loads!

 

[rembrow]

It's been lovely reading the stories about our dog friends, so uplifting. I thought I'd share mine and our life so far with Sammy. He is a very Handsome (well I think so) short haired collie. He came to live with us in July 2008 from a collie rescue centre. We'd lost our much loved collie Shadow, in the April at the age of 15 plus. The new boy was named Sammy, as my wife had lost her father Samuel and brother William Samuel in the previous 3 months. Sammy had a difficult early life, he was found by agents of the rescue centre, in a pound in Ireland and was close to being put down. It was thought that he had started as a working collie, but was given up. The rescue centre in the UK later found that he had a birth abnormality, in that one front leg shoulder joint had a ball that was too small for the socket, so he regularly suffered partial dislocations. His fur was in an awful condition, but we fell in love with him and he came to live with us in his forever home.

We built his strength up gradually and after about a year the joint problem seemed to disappear. He was clearly shepherd trained as he responded to away and fetch commands, but he was highly focused and once trained in a job, he insisted it was his to do. The local tennis players at our village playing field, used to stop and watch on a Sunday as I sent him one way around the courts and then the other way, even other dogs used to stop and watch. Playing ball with Sammy while out 'working' was a one throw activity, as having chased and fetched it, he decided it was his job to carry it around the field until we left the park. That's how things were until in 2013, while holidaying in Cornwall and doing our usual walking hike of about 8-10 miles, we noticed he was getting stiff in getting up. On vet advice, we started him on joint supplements and had to curtail the runs and long walks, the problem with his front leg shoulder joint had led to arthritis in the elbow of the same leg.

He still enjoyed his life, now with walks and his joint improved until late last year, late November. I returned from 3 hours at the National Trust and Sam came to see me at the front door, but he was swaying from side to side. I booked an immediate vet appointment and by the time we got there he was unable to stand and his eyes were darting from side to side. The vet diagnosed Idiopathic Vestibular disease, which is a sudden unexplained collapse of the inner ear, he was given steroid and anti nausea injections and we were advised that most dogs start to recover in 10-14 days. The problem is getting the dog up and exercised as they don't want to walk due to the balance problem, which must be like long term sea sickness. My wife and I managed to fashion a sling harness from a towel and were able to get Sam into the garden and walked. Things were going well and he was improving until 12 days later he had another attack. This left him in a worse condition, the vet didn't hold out much hope as he doubted we could manage the exercise and feeding. Sam needed to be fed liquidised food by hand, and normal savoury flavours were refused, but I found that adding macaroni cheese and some sugar was a tempter. We also had to feed him water by hand, as he wouldn't touch his bowl or travel bowl even when bought to him. I managed to show him water by bringing the bowl to his side and cupping my hands which he would take water from my palms. This lasted about 6 days but then he started to drink from his collapsible travel bowl and just before Christmas he took his first solid food and the recovery was on. In the New Year we started to take him out of the house for walks, first about 100 metres and adding to it each day.

He was left with a wobble in his walk and his head tilts to one side, which is a normal after effect of this condition. He has problems judging height, such as kerbs and door entrances, so we got a harness that goes down his sternum and around his ribcage, so now I can hold his frame while he judges the up or down step.

Unfortunately, during lockdown, his mobility became much worse and he was having problems with his rear leg joints. We managed to get to the vets in June and it was as feared, age related arthritis. He is now taking anti inflammatary medication with his food and has had no adverse reaction. It is helping him to be able to get up and down, and we have had to shorten his walks, but typical of Sam, when I turn away from our normal route, he resists, as it's not his normal work route.

He is still enjoying life, but in the slow lane, he still brings his ball toys to be thrown and fetched and he still wants to go out, but my wife and I know he's in the last part of his life and I'm not ashamed to say we have had and are still having many tears.

So anyway, sorry this has been a long story, I've added a couple of photos taken of Sam in 2011 when we did the North Norfolk walk from Sheringham to Hunstanton in glorious autumn weather that year, where we stayed at Walsingham 

[ikcdab]

Well we have three dogs and wouldnt be without any of them.

Ted is the oldest,now almost 16. He's now deaf and pretty much blind and also deep into doggy dementia. But he doesnt seem distressed at all and spends his days sleeping in the sun. Or (as below) standing in a water bowl to keep cool.

He was a rescue dog at 18 months old, so has been with us for 14 of 15 years. Never sure of his breed, perhaps Lassa Apso or Tibetan terrier or something else. Not sure.

But has had a very happy and full life with us. 

[Derek 19B]

This is Otis looking fed up waiting for his Second walk of the day . First walk  is 05:30 in the morning before it gets tooo hot, walk along the beach if I was to through a ball , i would get the look ,what did you do that for you will have to fetch that  so no balls .

evening walk is as late as i can make it as the day cools , by not much but from about 15:00 he starts the pestering .

Usually sitting / laying in the middle of the Railway room.

 

Some days we go up through the hills but back before the heat is turned on . Some afternoons we have a pit stop in the village bar ,where Otis gets his iced water before my Beer.

 

Happy days in the Med

Derek

[rembrow]

My love affair with collies started at the end of 1975. My fiance and I had bought our first house in mid December and were due to be married in early March 1976. We didn't live in the house as she came from a strict catholic family, so I spent my time working on the property. On Boxing Day we visited her uncle, who had a small terrier cross, however we were met by the cutest black and white long haired collie you could imagine. Her uncle worked for London Transport tube and had found the dog on Christmas Eve. She was no more than about 6 months old and had been found tied to a seat on a tube train, with a note 'not wanted' and a tube ticket. She must have been an unwanted Christmas gift. The collie pup wasn't settling with the terrier so my wife's uncle had decided to put her into rescue. My fiance fell in love with her and decided she would be our first dog. What to do for the next couple of months?, my wife said, no problem, her mum and dad will help look after her,. so back to mum and dad in law. Well mother -in-law promptly took to her bed and my fiance threatened to leave home. To bring peace back I suggested my folks, so we set off with collie pup, now named Tammy, across south London to my home. Things went well, mum and dad loved Tammy, however after a couple of days the issues with an inquisitive collie pup came to the front. Tammy would bring plant stems from the garden back to the house. Mum loved her garden and now so did Tammy, but in a different way. The final straw for mum was when she left Tammy for the first time to go into town and returned to find not a black and white collie pup, but a very black collie pup as she had overturned two coal scuttles and played with the coal and padded it around the kitchen chairs etc, etc. Tammy was homeless again, so I moved into our new house in mid January, with Tammy, my fiance worked nearby and came to see her during the day. It wasn't ideal but we got through until we married in the March and Tammy and both of us lived together for 14 years. She looked after and protected our daughter from a baby to a 12 year old, the two were inseperable. Many happy memories. 

We had a break from having a dog when Tammy died, as my wife developed a viral arthritis, believed to be from a tick bite while in the New Forest, she was unable to walk properly for 3 years. When her condition improved, we looked for a rescue dog and found a 1 year old collie cross in a local pound and so Shadow came to live with us for 15 years.

Edited August 11, 2020 by rembrow

[TheQ]

17 hours ago, rembrow said:

It's been lovely reading the stories about our dog friends, so uplifting. I thought I'd share mine and our life so far with Sammy. He is a very Handsome (well I think so) short haired collie. He came to live with us in July 2008 from a collie rescue centre. We'd lost our much loved collie Shadow, in the April at the age of 15 plus. The new boy was named Sammy, as my wife had lost her father Samuel and brother William Samuel in the previous 3 months. Sammy had a difficult early life, he was found by agents of the rescue centre, in a pound in Ireland and was close to being put down. It was thought that he had started as a working collie, but was given up. The rescue centre in the UK later found that he had a birth abnormality, in that one front leg shoulder joint had a ball that was too small for the socket, so he regularly suffered partial dislocations. His fur was in an awful condition, but we fell in love with him and he came to live with us in his forever home.

We built his strength up gradually and after about a year the joint problem seemed to disappear. He was clearly shepherd trained as he responded to away and fetch commands, but he was highly focused and once trained in a job, he insisted it was his to do. The local tennis players at our village playing field, used to stop and watch on a Sunday as I sent him one way around the courts and then the other way, even other dogs used to stop and watch. Playing ball with Sammy while out 'working' was a one throw activity, as having chased and fetched it, he decided it was his job to carry it around the field until we left the park. That's how things were until in 2013, while holidaying in Cornwall and doing our usual walking hike of about 8-10 miles, we noticed he was getting stiff in getting up. On vet advice, we started him on joint supplements and had to curtail the runs and long walks, the problem with his front leg shoulder joint had led to arthritis in the elbow of the same leg.

He still enjoyed his life, now with walks and his joint improved until late last year, late November. I returned from 3 hours at the National Trust and Sam came to see me at the front door, but he was swaying from side to side. I booked an immediate vet appointment and by the time we got there he was unable to stand and his eyes were darting from side to side. The vet diagnosed Idiopathic Vestibular disease, which is a sudden unexplained collapse of the inner ear, he was given steroid and anti nausea injections and we were advised that most dogs start to recover in 10-14 days. The problem is getting the dog up and exercised as they don't want to walk due to the balance problem, which must be like long term sea sickness. My wife and I managed to fashion a sling harness from a towel and were able to get Sam into the garden and walked. Things were going well and he was improving until 12 days later he had another attack. This left him in a worse condition, the vet didn't hold out much hope as he doubted we could manage the exercise and feeding. Sam needed to be fed liquidised food by hand, and normal savoury flavours were refused, but I found that adding macaroni cheese and some sugar was a tempter. We also had to feed him water by hand, as he wouldn't touch his bowl or travel bowl even when bought to him. I managed to show him water by bringing the bowl to his side and cupping my hands which he would take water from my palms. This lasted about 6 days but then he started to drink from his collapsible travel bowl and just before Christmas he took his first solid food and the recovery was on. In the New Year we started to take him out of the house for walks, first about 100 metres and adding to it each day.

He was left with a wobble in his walk and his head tilts to one side, which is a normal after effect of this condition. He has problems judging height, such as kerbs and door entrances, so we got a harness that goes down his sternum and around his ribcage, so now I can hold his frame while he judges the up or down step.

Unfortunately, during lockdown, his mobility became much worse and he was having problems with his rear leg joints. We managed to get to the vets in June and it was as feared, age related arthritis. He is now taking anti inflammatary medication with his food and has had no adverse reaction. It is helping him to be able to get up and down, and we have had to shorten his walks, but typical of Sam, when I turn away from our normal route, he resists, as it's not his normal work route.

He is still enjoying life, but in the slow lane, he still brings his ball toys to be thrown and fetched and he still wants to go out, but my wife and I know he's in the last part of his life and I'm not ashamed to say we have had and are still having many tears.

So anyway, sorry this has been a long story, I've added a couple of photos taken of Sam in 2011 when we did the North Norfolk walk from Sheringham to Hunstanton in glorious autumn weather that year, where we stayed at Walsingham 

I think you've got Ben's older Brother... He came from Ireland too..

[rembrow]

17 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I think you've got Ben's older Brother... He came from Ireland too..

Sammy came from a rescue centre who mainly rescued collies. Most came from Ireland as they had a network of volunteers checking the pounds in Ireland. Apparently as working dogs, who don't make the grade, they tended to be disposable. The rescue centre was Wiccaways, then in Northamptonshire near Wellingborough, but now in Leicestershire. They now get more dogs from Romania than Ireland. They offer lifetime support for their rescues so Sammy would always have an alternative home, they also gave us great support in helping us understand him. I learnt so much more about collies from Paul, one of the partners, particularly the need for them to have 'jobs to do'. With Sam, as soon as I get my boots on in the morning, he changes into work mode, with ears pricked and head forward and until recently he would always walk ahead of me. He would go into 'collie crouch' when seeing other dogs, bikes, runners which to him were things he needed to herd for his human shepherd. When we get home, he hangs around my legs until I get my boots off and tell him 'that'll do' then he trots in to the house. One nearly disastrous encounter was when a lady in dayglo lycra tracksuit ran past us saying 'hello' but she didn't see that Sammy was working her and tried to nip her bum when she didn't turn!!! 

Edited August 11, 2020 by rembrow