Mourning our loss

Today has been a very hard day for us. We “inherited” a couple of dogs when we took over an old country pub in 2002 – a 9 year old miniature fox terrier and a 5 year old German Shepherd – to this day I’m not sure which one was more ferocious in their younger days.

The shepherd was the guard dog for the pub and everyone was terrified of him even though he really was just a big pussy cat underneath. He did his job really well and managed to make a meal out of a few people who took him on.

The heat we have endured over the past 3 weeks and the heatwave over the past week have taken their toll and on Thursday the old dog went down and didn’t get up. He wagged his tail everytime I spoke to him and he happily took morsels from my hand but he was wasting away in front of me.

When I stopped to pat him this morning he was facing the front door laying in a pool of his own urine with a guilty look on his face. He had tried to make it to the door on his belly but did not have the strength to get there. The decision had to be made.

Now he has a quiet spot on top of a hill on a farm overlooking a nice valley keeping tabs on some wild goat herds that roam around the place. The friend who took him away left with tears in his eyes and he wasn’t even attached to the dog. Good bye good friend, thanks for all the good years and for doing your job so well. We’ll miss you buddy – the other dogs are missing you already. Smudge has been looking for you all morning. VALE Duke – my good shepherd.