This old dog continues to surprise us, she is 13 now and although she is very stiff when she moves she is happy to lie around the garden in the sunshine, letting the warmth ease those old bones. We have owned her since she was born but for the first two years of her life she lived over the road with an elderly couple who adored her, coming back to us to have her puppies. Sadly the old lady died and her husband couldn't manage to look after a big dog on his own so she came back to live with us. She escaped to run back across the road whenever she could, chewing a hole through the wooden front door to get out. She cried constantly and sat by the front door waiting for a chance to get back to the people she loved. It was so sad and she was so unhappy.
We rehomed her out of the area with some friends, hoping she would settle but after a few months she escaped and went missing, found eight miles away from her new home on her way back here.
We thought it cruel to try again so we kept her here and after a few months, when the old man died she realised they had gone from their house and she stopped crying. She lives here on her terms, she occasionally graces us with her presence, licks a hand and then goes back to her place under the stairs.
Last year I took a photograph of her in the garden, thinking it would be her last summer but here she is again. One day it will be time for her to go, when she can't get herself into the garden any more or when her old bones ache too much and hurt all the while but we hope we don't have to make a decision when that will be. I hope one day she is sleeping out in the sunshine and she doesn't wake up. Whenever it is, we will miss her.
I'm bright - actually it says I'm a genius but we all knew that didn't we? ;) Obviously it's not a proper test but I beat Steve's score so I'm happy - not that I'm competitive or anything......
