Very suddenly on Thursday we had to say goodbye to our beautiful wolfhound Benji.it was all very sudden and has left us sad and missing
him so much, he was such a lovely part of our lives. Bill has been away all
week in Perth so I have been getting up at 5:30am and taking both dogs for a
walk separately which is what I did on Thursday morning. I always take him
second as he waits at home patiently and doesn’t get up to mischief like Luna,
I always put my hand up and say I will take you when I get back, as he always
looks at me like he is hopeful I would take him first. I took him when I got
back and he charged out he door as he usually does, barks as he usually does at
some point almost for the sake of barking and hearing his own voice! He was his
normal beautiful Benji self.
I went off to work, when I got home about 5pm he
didn’t come out to meet me or say hello, which is unusual, he was asleep down
in Amy’s room, Amy and I commented on this and a few minutes later Amy came
down to my room to say she thought Benji wasn’t well, she brought him down to
my room, we talked about him for a bit and she decided to ring the vet and see
if she could get an appointment, they were booked out but told Amy to bring him
up and if she was prepared to wait someone would have a look at him, I think
she told them that she was worried because his gums were pale, which evidently
is a sign of internal bleeding . They took him in pretty quickly and soon Amy
had called to say he wasn’t well and they were going to do x-rays, then she
called again to say he would probably have to go to the emergency vet to be
monitored overnight, then she called to say it looked like he would have to be
operated on because he had a tumour which had ruptured, by this time I said I
would come up and be with her as she was starting to sound distressed and it
was all more serious than we thought, I said I would be about 15 minutes, sent
her a text to suggest it might be worth calling Jakob from work, which she did.
By the time I got there she had come to the decision herself that the best
thing for Benji was to say goodbye and have him euthanised. It was so quick and
sudden, we were all in shock. Jakob had told Amy that they could operate, no guarantees
and it might prolong his life for a few weeks then with chemo a few months, it
would have been a hard recovery and we would have been doing it for our sake and not for Benji.
I was very proud and
impressed with the maturity of Amy with the decision, she had had him since he
was a puppy, he was her dog, we got him from Gordon our next door neighbour,
when her depression was diagnosed so he means the world to her, and to all of us.
Lachlan came up to say goodbye has well, it was so sad, we were all with him to
the end. In a matter of three hours he was gone. At least he had a happy last
day, going for his walk, doing all his normal things, being with everyone and
Amy was home with him all day as it was her day off, and it all happened
quickly so there wasn’t a lot of suffering or much pain. I had been talking
with Bill on the phone so he was in the loop and knew what was happening, a
very sad day in our lives.
Poor Benji - Amy was always dressing him up somehow!
He loved sleeping on the couch with Bill
Amy brought him home from work after a bath with this pink bow in his hair- how embarrasing- but he did smell nice. She even painted his nails once.
Relaxing on the lawn with Amy
Dressed up as an apprentice electrician.
Can't believe he was this tiny once!
One of my favourite shots- he would wait up near the fence and guard the property for us!
He had a mighty jump on him!
Another one of Amy's dress up times!
Such an elegant dog!
RIP Beautiful Benji- our giant teddy bear!
