Long may he pad in peace and joy there.

Regards

It is one of the cruelest things in life that dogs go so early.......................

Sorry for your loss man.

I lost my "best friend" before her time, whom travelled with me everywhere and came from my last home abroad, on New Years Day two years ago. Real kick in the guts it was.

I thought that I would wait until I had a couple of beers before commenting (this time is now, obviously, can't get it out right otherwise, it'll probably come out slurred anyway)

Most of my closest friends have four legs, they have never lied to me, they cheat on me all the time but apologise to me every time they do, they don't talk about me behind my back, they don't expect me to be anything other than what I am and every sign of affection I show them is returned a hundred-fold.

I've lost more than a couple of these friends over time, and the only thing that you can take some comfort from is at least they had a good life while it lasted, a far better one than some get...... and you're right Ken, they do all break your heart in the end.

Thanks for that Thaddy. Both my head and heart hurting a little less today.

I've got dozens of sonny By stories, here's a couple.

I used to live at the beach in California. Every day I'd take Son out for a walk with the tennis ball and throw it for him. He never got tired of it, though I did. So, I started throwing it out beyond the breaking waves. Not detered he'd jump over or through the breagers and bodysurf back in. I felt this was a little dangerous so I put the ball in mypocket. With no ball he'd go exploring in the dunes, and damned if he didn't come back with another tennis ball from somewher in less than 5 minutes. I put that in my pocket too and he went and found another. Future walks I didn't take any balls, and he always found one, somewhere.

When I went to visit friends, Son would start walking their land in a grid pattern. What's he doing"? they'd ask. "He's looking for a ball said I. "We don't have any" said they and 2 minutes later the boy would arrive with one.

When we used to live in New Mexico I used to take him for hikes at the bird preserve. It was huge, like 100 sq mi and lakes everywhere. Once when Sonny Boy came on a lake with thousands of herons, egrets, ducks and whatnot in it, he went into his classic point. As he held his point I could see him start shaking. He started shaking and trembling so bad he looked like an engine that was about to shake itself apart. Here's where hundreds of years of selective breeding went down the drain and the fun loving dog in him took over. he broke point and bounded into the lake like a deer and thousands of birds took flight and it looked like one of those scenes from an African documentary. He just wanted to play...

Thanks everyone. I'm better now and so is he.

you know, thats the one thing I have learned from my losses, the gratitude for having that dog (or person) in my life. Imagine how much poorer you would be for not having known sonny?

It does get better and one day you can look back at your life with Sonny and rememer the joy and not the loss. Best wishes to you

you know, thats the one thing I have learned from my losses, the gratitude for having that dog (or person) in my life. Imagine how much poorer you would be for not having known sonny?

It does get better and one day you can look back at your life with Sonny and rememer the joy and not the loss. Best wishes to you

I've got a million great memories S.

A few days ago, on his last visit to the vet, he couldn't stand, so I carried him in and carried him out. As I was driving home I was stopped at a red light and saw in the rearview mirror Sonny's head stickiing out over the side of the truck, same as always. I don't know where he found the energy.

I was so worried he'd fall down when I started out, so I crossed the intersection at about 5 kms/hr and drove home the remaining 12 kms on the shoulder at about 25kms/hr. Just enough for him to put his nose up to smell the air and his ears to start flapping a little. He stayed that way all the way home and then collapsed.

Nothing but good memories. Thanks again.