The Old Hack

When a young life is taken suddenly it is always tragic, always sad, always a terrible waste of “what might have been “.  Does the fact that the young life taken without warning is that of a pet dog make a difference? 

We brought Stuart home from a dog rescue centre last May.  He was a slightly scrawny little chap who had only recently recovered from a broken front leg.  He’d been apparently abandoned by a previous owner, and was rummaging around in bins for food.  An animal charity in Dordogne had taken him in and had his broken leg fixed.  He was given a temporary home, food and shelter and when we visited the shelter we fell for him and decided to give him a more permanent base.

 In a very short time, Stuart put on a little weight, learned how to bark at the “right” things and keep quiet when it was appropriate.  He learned what it was like to be loved and cared for and in return he guarded our house and garden (all half a metre of him!) and cried if we left him for more than about half an hour at a time.

 We’ve been through some tough times recently, and having Stuart around has given us a focus and reminded us that sometimes it is good to be able to provide for a loveable little fellow who had come to rely on us for his daily needs, and was far more vulnerable than either of us in so many ways.

 Stuart certainly had his idiosyncrasies.  He wouldn’t touch tinned dog food and didn’t much care for dog biscuits but would sit around the kitchen stove waiting for freshly cooked chicken, rabbit or whatever.  He loved being in the car, and would stand awkwardly with his front paws resting on the central console in order to be able to supervise my driving (and bark at any cat or dog seen on the pavement).  He liked his own bed, bought especially for him and chosen for size, and gladly and obediently settled down into it each night, never once awakening us but greeting us with tail wagging madly when we arose in the morning.

 Tomorrow morning, for the first time, Stuart will not be there to greet us and there will be an unbearable emptiness in our house.  We won’t know the cause of Stuart’s untimely death until the veterinary surgeon, who tried so valiantly but in vain to save his life has been able to perform a post-mortem.  In many ways it is irrelevant, but somehow we need some kind of answer to such a tragic event.

Our crumb of consolation in all this is that while he was with us, Stuart had the kind of life some dogs can only dream of.  He was well-nourished, well-groomed, given all the affection he needed and was able to exercise and interact with lots of doggy friends.  Today he greeted us in the morning with his usual affection, came for a ride in the car and was cosseted all afternoon.  He had his favourite chicken for tea.  That was to be his last meal.  About a quarter of an hour after his meal we went to take him for a walk.  We found him under our bed, gasping for breath, his tongue blue and his little body shaking.

 The vet, thinking perhaps he had choked, tried performing the Heimlich manoeuvre and when that failed immediately performed an emergency tracheotomy and breathed into his little lungs.

 For a moment he seemed to respond, coughing slightly and taking a couple of shallow breaths on his own, before his little heart could take no more of this trauma, and stopped beating.  Stuart died about 7.10 this-evening, leaving an aching hole in our lives, which will take some time to mend.

 Animal charities all over the world do their best to help abandoned and mistreated dogs and help pay (as in Stuart’s case) to mend broken limbs and give dogs and cats a better deal in life.  If you can afford to do so, please think of them and donate a little something to an animal charity near you.

Stuart Little – Died 2^nd September 2009 - RIP