Well, feeling very sad and teary, I had to put our old faithful happy loyal friend of 15 years down this morning. He was a Golden Retriever cross Boarder Collie. His name was Dippy. We got him as a ball of black fluff from the Pound back in early 2005, and he's been part of our family ever since.
He has been our black shadow for about 13-1/2 of the last 15 years, hunting fishing camping, life, you name it he's been there. He had slowed down over the last 18 months or so, prefering more and more often to stay by the fire. He would still walk down to the garden or the workshop with us, but he's been getting really slow.
He was a fantastic family dog. He was there as a pup when my three kids were growing up, my daughter who is now almost 16, used to use Dippy when she was learning to walk. Dippy would let her hang on to his fur while she staggered and bumbled along. As she got better at it, Dippy was there in case she lost her balance.
When they were younger, the kids used to curl up beside him by the fire in the winter, actually they still did that now and then last winter. I've been known to do that too, on the not so odd occasion.
He was a protector. I remember one time when my wife and kids were walking back up to the house after a walk and a Tiger snake crossed the road just in front of them. Dippy jumped forward barking and snarling to scare the snake away from "his" people.
He actually had a Snake warning bark. It was a certain sound that if we heard him using it, we knew there was a snake, and I'd go catch it, bag it and relocate it a mile and a half away from the house.
He retrieved ducks for me, no training was necessary. I just took him with me one day when he was about 18 months old. I managed to pull off a nice right/left with my old side by side 12 gauge and cleanly dropped a pair of Black Ducks. Dippy simply swam out and bought them back to land. Good dog that. Was my duck dog ever since. He absolutely loved water.
Possums in the fruit trees, he would sit at the base of the tree, and "woof, woof, woof" till I shot the possum. As soon as the possum hit the ground he was onto it like a flash and would scruff it and shake the snot out of it. Fur would fly everywhere. Then he would just sit there and "smile".
He would hunt wallaby and quail with me, never went more than 30 or 40 meters away and would point, then flush on command, and most often retrieve.
He just wanted to please.
For over 9 years while we had our Gunsmithing business, he was in the workshop with me every day. If it was cold he'd be by the wood heater, if it was warm he'd be in the doorway in the beeeze. But as soon as I'd go away from the work bench, to test fire a repair, make a coffee or answer the call of nature (blame the coffee) or for any reason at all, he'd be there by my side.
He was a brilliant dog. Like I said, faithful, loyal, happy, and a great friend.
He had a stroke last night, eyes went all jittery, each leg wanted to go in a different direction. We settled him down, but he was no good this morning, and we had to make the obvious but very sad hard decision. All the kids were here and got to say goodbye.
Been a tough day.
He's only been gone less than eight hours, and I'm still looking for him, wanting to give him a hug and a pet.
I miss him.
Topic: Tough day (Read 2283 times)
