Hello Readers,
It’s been a while since I wrote anything, I’ve been unwell the last week and so barely left the house for more than an hour. With the state of media and television these days it’s often very hard to find something worth writing about when you haven’t left the house and all you did in the house is watch TV and try to study and write an essay. Not very exciting things let me tell you.
As you can no doubt tell by the title of tonight’s post it’s not really a happy one because this evening our 14 year old ‘puppy’ died. Red has been showing the signs of her 100+ human years for some time now but this afternoon she suffered some kind of stroke or heart attack and after a brief period of confusion and being paralyzed, she very quietly died on her sofa.
I have lost family before (3 out of 4 grandparents) and pets (dog and cats) and it is always an upsetting thing to lose someone that has been a part of your life for such a long period of time. After 14 years Red had left a large paw print on the lives of most people who spent time around her as she was a very unique dog and certainly had plenty of quirky habits that most people found endearing. She had taught herself to open doors as a puppy to avoid the punishment of being shut outside, and so she could escape when given the chance.
This was up until the last year or so, a very surprising moment for courier drivers who would come to the door, hear a dog bark but feel safe that she was inside and nobody had come to the door, then try and leap the fence to safety as Red opened the door herself and came running out to give them a lick and see if they had come with food or not!
You could also almost set your watch by her ability to know when it was time for lunch. The trouble with feeding a labrador only once a day is that they will know exactly what time that once should be, even if you don’t agree. Offered enough dog treats I think that Red could probably have been taught how to be one of those clever dogs that they use for doing the tricks and what not in movies. She was certainly good at getting the paper in the morning for her biscuit and if you left it in the plastic wrap on the table, she would pull it down and try to bring you the paper again an hour later, just in case you forgot that she had done it already and decided to feed her another reward. Dad was never game enough to teach her to fetch beer from the fridge and bring it to him though, probably figured she might just want to sit on the sofa watching rugby and drink the beer too.
So now it’s time to celebrate Reds life with friends and family, and also to put her to a final rest in the garden she loved playing in so much all her (very long) life. I think the hard part will be making sure there’s enough beer and wine for everyone, oh and digging the hole under the old apple tree.
Let’s hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow!
R.I.P with your friend Paddington Cat