Farewell to our beautiful dogs

On New Years Eve, our 12 year old Labradors Serious Dog and Smiley Dog went over the rainbow bridge. I haven't posted a lot about them but they were a big part of our family. They were half brothers from different litters 8 months apart. Serious Dog chose Boy Child to be his when Boy Child was 2. Boy had seen an ad on TV for the guide dogs and said "I love that yellow dog, Mummy." I had always wanted a dog but I grew up in a house with cats so it didn’t take much to convince me. We looked around and found a reasonable priced litter of puppies within a reasonable drive and the rest was history.

Boy child and Serious Dog

 

A very tired pup

 

About 8 months later I was on training course in the same town where we got Serious Dog. One of the bonding activities had us walking around town and I noticed that there was a little pup all alone. I felt bad for the pup all by himself and discovered that the pup had the same father as Serious Dog but a different mother. At the time I was planning on getting my motorbike license and a motorbike and I rang to chat to Mr E. I was prepared to give up my motorbike dream if I was able to bring the pup home. So our family grew to include another dog.

Smiley Dog

 

Once at home together, they were a force of nature and inseparable.

 

We used to have a sprinkler system but it was eaten.

 

They were always together as puppies

 

And as adults (Serious on the Left, Smiley on the Right)

 

They both had health problems but the last half of 2013 was bad for Serious Dog. But in the end he had a fast growing tumour in his mouth.  It was melanoma and it appeared quickly. It was cut out but it grew back. Serious Dog wasn’t in pain but on New Years Eve we were told he would be to be put down by the end of this week. So we made the decision to have it done later that afternoon.

As Smiley was deaf (read here) and blind he was utterly dependant on Serious. He also had severe separation anxiety which meant that anytime Serious was away from home, Smiley stand at the gate or back door and just howl mournfully.  We (and the vets involved) felt that it would be cruel to force Smiley to adapt to life without his brother. It was an extremely difficult decision to make.  Heart breaking, really.

They went to sleep peacefully and lying down next to each other.  Afterward, Smiley Dog’s tail moved as though he was wagging it. I know it was just a side effect of the medicine but I have taken a bit of comfort from that. He never held his tail still so I have taken that as a sign that he was okay with our decision.

Goodbye my boys. You will be forever in our hearts and memories. Thank you for being part of our family and for showering us with love. You are very missed.