Porridge was diagnosed with leukaemia in February and despite doing very well on chemotherapy for some months he had become weaker and weaker over the last week and sadly we had to call our lovely vet out yesterday for a PTS visit. It has left such a hole in our lives, and a big space on our sofa.
I've posted about his illness before here and here It just seems so unfair he only had 17 months with us after a hard life without much TLC.
I hope that if I say something about him it might help other dogs in the situation he was in when we met him.
Two years ago if anyone told me I would be getting a Staffie I just wouldn't have believed them. When I came across Porridge on the Many Tears web site I couldn't ignore his plight. At the age of 9 he had ended up in the pound in Swansea. On his last day one of those "never put a healthy dog down" charities cherry picked all the other dogs awaiting death and left him to be put down. Fortunately Many Tears rescued him at the 11th hour and he was safe. No one wanted an elderly threadbare slightly warty Staffie and he waited for ages for a home. Two placements failed through no fault of his - in the second the resident dog attacked him quite badly. He was back in kennels again and very depressed when my conscience wouldn't let me leave him there.
Why are people so prejudiced against Staffies? I've met quite a few over the last year and without exception they have been friendly and clever and funny and 100% devoted to their families. Porridge had lovely manners, walked beautifully on the lead, and hadn't got an ounce of agression in him.
He was so happy with us and trained us to let him indulge himself with long lie ins ( in our bed) lots of walks and to provide him with apple cores, prawn crackers and all the other things he liked. He even seemed to enjoy trips to the vet!
And now he is gone. If I could just make one person seriously consider rescuing one of these lovely big hearted dogs instead of adding to the constant breeding of labradoodles and designer crosses which result in lovely healthy loving dogs ending up in skips it would be his legacy to his breed.
Got to go now, gettting a bit tearful.