I woke at 06:30 I wanted to be early for work as had quite a few deliveries to get out, thank god the sun was shining again it does help you get through the days!
Bentley my beautiful 10 year old mastiff had taken a turn for the worse overnight, he had been booked in twice before to be put to sleep but it can only have been divine intervention that saved him as we were flooded in the first time and then the car broke down. I changed his food and he got his appetite back a little so he’s had a good couple of months but now he just didn’t want to get up and he was painfully thin and unable to poo so we made the appointment for 16:00 hours.
Work was ok I made up all the orders and delivered them, what were the chances one was for a couple who had their dog put to sleep! I kept myself composed and got through the day. Most of my deliveries were in remote (ish) rural areas but I’ve never seen so many people in my life it’s crazy there’s fat people jogging old people cycling dogs being dragged out for walks clearly fed up with the situation and longing for their owners to go back to work so they can rest! One guy had his shirt off (he probably took it off at every available opportunity) he was walking down a lane towards me like the Diet Coke adverts of the 90’s and I’m not saying his pecks were distracting but I hit a huge pothole which jolted me back to reality so put my eyes back in rolled up my tongue and carried on up the hill thinking if I were 10 years younger…….I’d still be 10 years too old!
I arrived back just after 15:00 and we took B for his last walk in the field we didn’t go far as his breathing was quite laboured but he did still have a spring in his step. The dreaded time came and we took him to the vet it was all the more upsetting as we couldn’t go in so we said our goodbyes on the steps and the vet lead him away. After 10 mins she called and gave us confirmation of what we already knew and we all agreed that it was time to do what was right. A while later they bought him out to us wrapped in a blanket and we took the long drive to Cherry Trees pet crematorium reminiscing about the good and not so good times we had with him. It was all very strange at the crem they left us a stretcher and the paperwork, we carried him from the boot up the steps. He was 55 kilos the last time he was weighed but he had lost so much weight I have no idea what he was but I do know he was still bloody heavy! We had another tearful goodbye and left without seeing a soul.
There isn’t much else to say about the day I didn’t eat anything apart from a crappy sandwich at lunchtime and a chocolate chip muffin the family had the venison stew but I couldn’t face food. I spent the evening going through pictures of Bentley I don’t know if it helped or added salt to the wound but I couldn’t concentrate to do anything else.
Goes without saying I didn’t sleep and neither did Fabian, he came down crying a couple of times so we cuddled up in the sofa chatting about our crazy dog until 02:00 when we were both too knackered to keep our eyes open.
Life but not as we know it 