Gone but not forgotten.

[MrsDanverclone]

Two weeks ago today, my dog died. She had an operation in September, to remove a small tumour which turned out to be cancer. She made a fantastic recovery and the vet was very pleased with her progress. 2 weeks ago today, we woke up to find that she had died in her sleep, we miss her terribly.

Although I am happy in a way, that she died in her sleep, in her own bed, I feel cheated, I feel cheated on her behalf. She went through so much in her previous life, so now when she was happily settled, loved and what should have been, many more collie years ahead of her, we have lost her to cancer

So in memory of my dog Lottie, I would like to share with you, one of my many memories of her.

I had been to the cashpoint and withdrawn £260, as I needed to pay the new term of fees for various DC's activities. Just setting the scene in case you think I always carry such sums of money. I had gone out to the back garden to clean the hen house, left my collies inside, as their idea of helping is to eat hen poo.

During the time I was gone, one of them had taken my hand bag off the table (suspected Lottie). I walked back into the house to find my young collie dancing around with my hand bag in her mouth, it looked as though the bag had exploded, she had obviously ripped, eaten or trashed the contents. In amongst this chaos, Lottie is lying down in the middle of it all, totally concentrating on my purse, which is clutched between her paws. The purse is a really old, soft leather one that had belonged to my Grandma, which I used for sentimental reasons.

I stand in the doorway, breaking out in a cold sweat when I realise Lottie is pulling out the £20 notes from my purse with her teeth. Horrified, yet unable to move, I watch as very carefully she teases out a £20, moves her head to the side and places it on the pile of other £20's she's made beside herself. She had carefully removed most of the money and stacked it in pile, she had put my debit, drivers licence, library cards etc in another pile. It was the most amazing sight, all the while, the other collie is leaping madly around, tissues, old sweet wrappers and assorted bag junk flying in the air. She'd removed over £200 and not damaged any, we did nick name her Fagin for a while.

So please share your quirky/funny/silly memories of your dogs, past or present, as I could do with a bit of cheering up at the moment.

So sorry for your loss.

That's a truly wonderful story that made me laugh at what a lovely girl she obviously was. Hope the happy memories burst through the sadness.

Thank you Rhinestone

She was certainly a character and she is a big miss in our house. In fact I'm sitting here with tears running down my face, since typing it out, silly me.

I'm sorry about your dog. That is an amazing story .

MrsD 'Grief is the price we pay for love'. HM The Queen.

oh MrsD that has made me laugh! how clever of her :):)

I'm so very sorry she's gone :( and I've got tears running down my face too!

In the spirit of your thread I'd like to add a memory of Treacle, our lovely lab x collie who died in January...

She was always very, very gentle with the children, especially the little ones. One Christmas at MIL's house all the cousins were there, my youngest niece (3) wanted to shake paws with Treacle. That was fine until the next niece (5) came along and took Treacle's other front paw and started to shake it. Well the girls were only little and Treacle was fairly large, they couldn't hold her weight. She looked a bit worried, but clearly didn't want to pull her paws away in case she hurt them. I watched from across the room as Treacle slowly keeled over sideways onto the floor at their feet, wagging the whole time! She sat straight back up and let them shake paws again, just one paw then though!

She loved playing with the kids. I know it's not really encouraged to let them climb all over the dog, but it's hard to stop them when the dog is clearly enjoying it was much as the child and the dog keeps going back for more!

She was a fantastic dog and 10 months on I still miss her so much :(

wow, that is an amazing story. what a clever, wonderful dog she was

i cant think of anything as clever tbh that my dogs have done.

however, an amazing thing did happen with one of mine. i was here alone and had fallen outside on the drive during the early hours of the morning on a cold winters night. working out the times afterwards i must have been unconscious for about half an hour. i became aware of dog3 constantly licking me and when i came round realised that i was on the floor outside. when i came in the house dog1 and dog2 were led on the sofa looking scared. they obviously knew something was wrong. dog3 however, despite being freezing weather and he must have been cold as only small dog weighing 7kg, stayed with me and kept licking me until i came round. i like to think he knew i needed help but he also associates us lying on the floor with playtime so he could have been playing

I lived with my grandparents when I was young and we had a proper sized (ie not toy) yorkshire terrier called Kim when I was young. He was such a character.

We would spend summers on our farm and he used to go out on the tear for hours or even days. Coming home trailing all sorts of vegetation with a serious doggy hangover he would flop into his box, stick his nose over the side and sigh.

A favourite trick was to tease the bullicks by getting them to lean down to sniff him and then nip them on the end of the nose. Cue a ton of prime beef leaping up in the air.

When my Grandad went into hospital he spent all day every day waiting out on the lane for him refusing food to the point we were desparately worried about him too. My Grandad came back over a week later. I can still remember Kim flying in through the car window as the car was still moving going so completely berserk to see my Grandad again.

Kim lived until he was 17. My Grandad died two weeks later.

bumpybecky, I love the story of Treacle keeling over, while trying to keep the children happy.

chickchickchicken, what a clever little dog you have, you were so lucky he stayed with you, he probably saved your life. In that situation Lottie would have left me for the comfort of the warm house and my other collie would have dropped a toy on my unconscious body.

Thank you for the sympathy everyone, I know in the grand scheme of things 'it's only a dog' but I miss her so much and in RL lots of my friends aren't dog owners and I'm sure think I'm being odd suffering grief for a dog.

they are part of our family and its only natural to grieve. they are often in our lives longer than humans and are completely loyal to us

yes, i think he probably saved my life. i wouldnt have been found till the following day. that dog has a lump and is having an op next week which i am more worried about than when ds had a GA

by humans i meant friends/partners (though could apply to family too)

btw some lovely stories on here

mrsd sorry I was more dismal than I meant to be - they are never 'only a dog'. I don't think people understand just how deep that relationship can be until they have had one.

miacis, I could almost picture your Grandparents dog, as we had a Yorkie when I was a child. Kim sounds like a Yorkshire Terrier with attitude
My life is certainly richer for all the dogs that have shared my life.

chickchickchicken, good luck for the op next week, I will be thinking of you and him. There are lots of dogs that go on to make great recoveries ( read cheery stories on internet while she was at the vets) I was like an emotional wreck when I went to collect Lottie imagining her as this groggy, dog in pain. Instead as soon as I said my name to the receptionist, this almighty barking started from the recovery area ( she'd trained her ears to hear the sound of grated cheese dropping to the ground) as she dragged the nurse into the reception, bypassing the room she was trying to take her in. If she hadn't had the stitches I wouldn't have believed she'd had the op.
So fingers crossed for the op and prepare yourself for sore shins, because those hoods are like torture devices on the heads of dogs

A lovely thread, Mrs D, and what lovely, lovely memories. Lottie sounds amazing, and brought tears to my eyes - as did the other remembered woofers mentioned here.

I don't know that I have any particularly star-like memories of my old Dingo-dog, who died aged 14 just before dd1 was conceived (after years of miscarriages). I just know he was funny, affectionate, a talker and communicator extraordinaire, and that he saw me through many losses and difficult years of growing up.

I missed him so much those first few weeks and months after he died, and felt so guilty (even though it was clearly time) and shocked by having had to have him pts and die in my arms.....and then I dreamed he visited me, was young and full of life again, and clearly thought I was potty for worrying about him. We ran through a tunnel together, and then he gave me a smiling look (you know the ones) and ran off back down the tunnel without a second glance.

When I woke up I missed him dreadfully, but no more guilt and no more worry

ps he was a lab cross, a Battersea boy, with bits of basenji and staffy and god knows what else in there - very beautiful and very like a fluffier version of 'Mouse', our new rescue pup, who is on my profile photos