Well, this is certainly the year from hell. As some of you knew, I had an 'unofficial' assistance dog who was just wonderful and learned to help me in a variety of useful ways. Yesterday, she collapsed going on a walk, and the emergency vet found inoperable, invisible cancer of the spleen. It's a 'silent cancer' - often there's no sign of it until the last stage, which is what happened here. We've had to let her go.
DS is finding it really, really hard too. He's been awake half the night, and I worry about DH - he's been so ill and we've had one disaster after another this year.
So very sad. I'll try to write something of what it feels like to lose an assistance pet soon, but can't manage it right now...