I've typed and deleted a post about this three times tonight but this one might stop.
One of our dogs got put down today after a good innings.
I say ours, he was part of the pack at my mum and dads which were mostly my responsibility when I lived at home.
He was a RSPCA headline grabbing cruelty case. Left outside to starve his way through the dose of worms he had; he wasn't far from deaths door when a neighbour grassed his previous owner up. I forget the punishment but it wasn't suitable or far reaching enough.
He wasn't used to folk being nice to him but had such an amazing temperament, he responded excellently to a bit of interaction and lots of food.
He was bonny in the way a really ugly dog can be, a FrankenRussell of a dog, a cut and shut with hairy chair legs covered with chopped horsetails. Someone asked what breed he was once. A "Tripehound".
It was his nature that made him so good, he was err . . . really good natured and game for some serious scrambling even if it meant picking him up and chucking him up the difficult stuff.
He'd been knocking on the door for a few months but couldn't get up this morning.
Cheerio mate, nice knowing you.