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I'm feeling sad
Sep. 8th, 2007 10:54 pmI've just come back from my parents house after saying goodbye to their very, very old dog (she's over 17). The vet is coming out to her tomorrow as she needs to be put to sleep. Writing it down makes it sound heartless but the vet says she probably in pain, her back legs don't really work at all and she's got a sore on her foot that won't heal up.
She's a retired guide dog (seeing eye dog) as my mum is blind. It'll be a big hole in our lives as she's never been a docile, well behaved dog, in fact she's been anything but what people expect from a guide dog. She's very intelligent and more than a little willful. She knew mum couldn't see but the rest of us could, which meant she knew she could hide from mum by standing still and quiet behind a tree but that wouldn't work for the rest of us.
She liked to steal the bread people threw for the ducks but she also liked to eat fishermen's bait and garden snails. She loved to chase squirrels, dig holes just where mum would fall down them and she liked to help mum by pulling weeds out of the garden. Weirdly, other than the incident with the wisteria, she was actually a pretty good judge of what was weeds.
She liked to rip discarded wrapping paper from xmas presents into molecule sized shreds all over the living room floor, but she also did it to used tissues she pulled out of the waste basket.
When I came home from collage she used to sleep in my room so that I couldn't escape in the night. In fact she used to sleep on the bed sometimes and let me tell you, a labrador and person don't fit so well into a single bed. And she had terminal bad breath!
I'll miss her but she's had a long and happy life and given us immense pleasure. She's also been a really very good guide dog for my mum, even if she went everywhere at about 90 miles an hour and liked to lick the floor in supermarkets.
She's a retired guide dog (seeing eye dog) as my mum is blind. It'll be a big hole in our lives as she's never been a docile, well behaved dog, in fact she's been anything but what people expect from a guide dog. She's very intelligent and more than a little willful. She knew mum couldn't see but the rest of us could, which meant she knew she could hide from mum by standing still and quiet behind a tree but that wouldn't work for the rest of us.
She liked to steal the bread people threw for the ducks but she also liked to eat fishermen's bait and garden snails. She loved to chase squirrels, dig holes just where mum would fall down them and she liked to help mum by pulling weeds out of the garden. Weirdly, other than the incident with the wisteria, she was actually a pretty good judge of what was weeds.
She liked to rip discarded wrapping paper from xmas presents into molecule sized shreds all over the living room floor, but she also did it to used tissues she pulled out of the waste basket.
When I came home from collage she used to sleep in my room so that I couldn't escape in the night. In fact she used to sleep on the bed sometimes and let me tell you, a labrador and person don't fit so well into a single bed. And she had terminal bad breath!
I'll miss her but she's had a long and happy life and given us immense pleasure. She's also been a really very good guide dog for my mum, even if she went everywhere at about 90 miles an hour and liked to lick the floor in supermarkets.
