February

This is going to be a hard post to write because I have some really sad news.  Our beautiful dog Booshka who has appeared on the blog many times died suddenly last Wednesday morning. She was fine until last Sunday evening. Kate and I had walked her as usual in the morning, Paul being out of action after a bad fall from his bike.  But later that day she was sick and after that things went downhill very quickly.  I won’t go into the painful details of the experience but we did everything we could, followed the vet’s advice at every stage and in the end drove her to an emergency specialist hospital in Manchester at midnight on Tuesday. She was eventually diagnosed with a ruptured gall bladder and they planned to operate. But it was too late, she was too sick. 

We are heartbroken. She was only 2 years old and we expected to have her around for many more years. I thought we’d grow old together, that she’d catch up with me in doggy years by the time in was in my early seventies.  Our whole routine revolved around her and we don’t what to do with ourselves; the house seems very empty and far too clean.  It’s hard to go for walks as we don’t want to follow the usual routes without her and we don’t want to see other people walking their dogs.  There have been lots of tears from all of us. We’ve had many kind messages from friends and family, though perhaps it is only dog owners who get it.  One family member - who meant well - pointed out,  after sending her condolences, that now we’d be able to enjoy our retirement and go away on holidays without making complicated arrangements. I feel a bit guilty as it’s my moaning that has probably prompted this comment which upset us a bit. I didn’t want this dog to start with,  she was too big, too strong for me to walk. I complained about her fur clogging the vacuum and the vast quantities of mud she walked in.  She caused me to break my arm, Paul to break his ankle.  But now I’d happily let her break my other arm if we could just have her back.

On Wednesday, which was a mild, sunny day here, Kate and I went to Ness Gardens as we knew there’d be no dogs there. We walked and cried and sat on benches and cried some more.  The snowdrops at Ness. were in full bloom and they will always remind me of our lovely Booshka.