Bye Bonnie!

 

Today we said a very sad goodbye to our much loved Bonnie.

Over the last two or three weeks, she has had a major deterioration in her health. She had another lump – not a particular problem in itself but symptomatic of greater problems to come. A more immediate issue concerned her hind legs which suddenly became unstable. We had been with her to the Vet twice in the last two weeks and he thought that there was a neurological problem which he wanted to control with drugs.

However, we had decided some time ago that when her time came we would like her to go without this stage ie not to suffer at all, whether as a result of stress or pain and not to lose her essential nature as an active bouncy hound and more to the point not to be stuffed full of pills unless there was a cure.

Well, we know there is no cure, so it was a no brainer. The complication is that we are leaving for Scotland at the end of this week. In a perfect world, we would probably have left it a month or two but we could not do that because we have no alternative but to leave on Saturday.

So we talked it over and decided that we would ask the Vet to put her to sleep. I have been through this twice before but it was still a horrible decision to have to make and carrying it out was even worse!

We are of course very upset and we know that anyone who knew our wonderful dog, will be too but in the circumstances, it was the only responsible and caring thing to do. She has had a good life, has been much loved and admired and we wanted her to retain her dignity before she went. I think we did that. She looked so peaceful, which did not help us a lot but we knew she had not suffered.

We can also remember her as she was and not as some poor old thing kept alive on pills.

Our good friends here in Crete, Hans and Hanneke, agreed that we could bury her on their land and they chose a wonderful spot overlooking the beach where we often used to take her. We buried her there this afternoon and later in the year, we will plant a tree on the spot to mark her memory.

She has been my friend and companion for thirteen years and a more faithful, obedient and friendly beast, a man could not wish for. I don’t know how I will cope with her not being around – we grew old together and I would have liked a few more years.

Memories are many but personal, so I’ll just let the pictures tell the story.

Bye Bonnie – you will be sorely missed!

Many thanks to Michalis and his staff at the Vet Clinic in Ierapetra.

John