So this blog post was almost expected by most of you..
On Thursday, we lost the love of our lives - our Angel Boy Bob.
Bob was our beautiful family member, not pet, for almost 10 years, meaning I don't remember that much before having him in our lives. He was a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, runt of the litter who fell into our lives and became our sunshine at a very dark time who continued to make us all smile each and every minute we were blessed to have him in our lives for from that day. He took the heart of everyone who met him from the moment they walked through the door..
He was not 'just a dog' and those who were honoured enough to have met him or truly know him and therefore experience the love he had for every person and animal he met, will completely understand when I say he was actually human. This is partly why our grief over our loss is so horrific and strong - he wasn't just one in a million, he was the one.
Bob was entirely happy and healthy for the majority of his 9 and a bit years, being the runt of a pedigree litter, he actually grew to twice his parent's size within 2 years and was extremely chunky and tufty - a far cry from the usual spindley, ringlety King Charles pedigrees. He always had a good hair chop a few times a year from his very special Aunty Clair, mainly due to how hot he became in the summer, but also due to the fact he used to drag his ears in his water bowl and then into his food bowl or the ground outside and he smelt so awful! He also looked like he did as a puppy with a short cut - so that was our 'selfish' reason for it too.
However he always had an irregular heart-beat from birth and a small stroke 2 years ago that caused him to develop Bells Palsy in the left side of his little face. It never caused him any discomfort or problems until he turned 9 - and developed a condition that affects almost half of King Charles' by age 5, and almost all King Charles' by age 10, if they are lucky enough to reach that age - Mitral Valve Disease. He had been hacking/coughing for a week or so and was very weak and short of breath, off his food and very lethargic so we took him to the vets who confirmed our deepest fear - he had the disease and we could only make his life more comfortable with tablets, we could not pro-long it, there is no cure for this disease. The tablets seemed to bring our normal Bobby back for a few months, but in the last week running up to his passing, he was extremely weak and had a seizure on Monday - almost as if to warn us... 'I wont be here much longer so please prepare yourselves and get your fear out of the way now'. Nothing could ever have prepared us for losing our little rock though.
He passed completely calmly, fast asleep on his favourite spot on the sofa, he was in no pain or discomfort and had waited until he knew we were all in the house - all of his pack were there. We noticed within seconds, and spent the rest of the evening sobbing and telling him how much we loved him... it was the most peaceful and dignified passing he could have had, we would have never have been able to have made a decision if it had come to that point - even in his final moments he was loving and selfless.
We have been heart broken ever since and our worlds are truly upside down now with the loss of our special little man, but he wouldn't want us to be sad or crying - it would have stressed him and he would have licked our faces and made us small of bad fish...
He would have wanted us to think back to the brilliant memories we have of him and the silly things he did that made us belly laugh until our stomachs hurt, so I have listed some of my personal favourite memories below:
- Every Christmas - the outfits, the games, the 'make sure he doesn't get in the dining room and get all of the food', the 'hide his present in the cupboard so he cant sniff it out', the 'everyone needs to let us know if they are giving us an edible present so we don't put it under the tree where he will sniff it out', the 'no edible tree decorations, he knows how to get through net bags and foil wrappers', the 'oh my god who hasn't warned us about an edible present there are chocolate wrappers all over the lounge', the 'who left the dining room door open, he's on the table!!!' and the 'I want to join you all' (in his voice) when we played games...
He never ever sat perfectly still for photo's first time...
- The Birthday parties - where he was actually the main attraction - (and rightly so)...
- The holidays - he was so good on the long journeys there and back, never once barking, always sitting still and never wetting himself (we fed and watered him on a very regular basis and took him for a walk at every service station we passed of course). He was part of the family and we had so much fun with him there...
- The baths and showers - such a good boy right up until the moment you tried to blow dry him, where he would go ape and wipe his sopping wet ears across the floor convinced he had water inside them (we were always careful - he never had water in them) and then shaking himself all over the walls, us, any guests we had, the cats etc...
The cutest little baby there ever was <3
- The stealing of food - forget 'That's poisonous for doggies Bob!' if he wanted it, he had it, be it an entire chocolate gateaux from a LOCKED dining room (he was more intelligent than he looked) the entire contents of the bin (he did develop Garbage-gastritis once - seriously it's a real thing), a packet of cough sweets from someone's bag, a packet of chewing gum from someone's bag, a punnet of grapes, nets of chocolate coins in foil, cat food, guinea pig and rabbit food, frozen chips, frozen sausages, piping hot items from the oven, any thing left on plates when they went in the dish washer, horse radish covered starters, carrots, peas, anything we happened to accidentally drop within 0.000002 seconds, anything on your plate and cupcakes by the batch... 'I promise I didn't have a cupcake mummy honestly'...
Sometimes he was too cute not to treat though...
- The kisses and cuddles - although in his later years his breath smelt vile despite his amazingly pristine teggies, his kisses and cuddles were the best around and they are definitely what I miss the most, my little fluffy monkey..
- The silly seating positions - he ruled the sofas, no matter who was there or where they were sat - he sat where he liked and only moved if HE trumped as if he was disgusted at YOU for the smell...
Our sofas will always be bent in at the top as a reminder of the great big heffalump that thought if the cats did it, he could too...
- The secrets we told - Bob was there for every heart break, every worry, every angry thought and every happy surprise - he knew more secrets about each of us than we or anyone else did, he was the best at secrets and never told a soul and for that I will be eternally grateful... he always acted as though he hadn't heard though, and just woke up with his 'funny wip'...
- General laughs and love - we never met anyone or anything that was as cute, loving, funny, pure and caring as Bob, and I am 100000% sure we never will either, he was the most incredible angel in the world and heaven is lucky to have him tripping them up, letting off smelly air biscuits and cuddling them until they are truly happy <3
It will not ever get easier, but I saw something recently that made me think 'I have to keep going for him, we all have to keep going for him' -
I love you with all of what is left of my heart after you took a huge piece of me with you my baby, I will see you again very soon I promise my angel boy..
Bed time Bobby, night night sweetheart <3
Lots of love, Emily-Rose xoxo
