Part 1: And then there was me…

There are two of us that live in this house. The other dog is Penny, she is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and quite old. In human years Penny is 14 years old and will be 15 this year. I am hoping we will have cake for her birthday like we did for mine, it was delicious.  I think, I am of much higher pedigree than Penny. We did compare a few months ago how many champions there were in our bloodlines and I do think she was slightly exaggerating when she insisted two of her grandparents and three of her great grandparents were champions. I am not sure she understands the meaning of a champion. Personally, I would have assumed based on how little and stocky she was, the only relative which was a champion was her mother for pushing that incredibly large head out. Not that I am jealous.

Since I arrived here, Penny has been like a mum to me. She has shown me everything I know so far and I love playing with her. She keeps laying down and letting me nibble her ears. I think she was lonely without me. We can literally spend hours running around together. I jump on her and she rolls over. I steal her food and she lets me take it.  I could not imagine life without Penny. I know she is old and sometimes she does need a break, like when I go to play and she turns her head away. On days like that, the humans try to give Penny a little space from me and take me out of the way for a while. She really is my best friend. We lay together, cuddling, she always lets me lay snuggled up close to her. She licks my ears and I lick hers. We share everything and I love her so much.

Last night there was a lot of commotion in the house. Penny has a cough and it started about two days ago. They took her to the vets yesterday and came back with some tablets which they smuggled into little cubes of cheese. I saw them push the tablets into the cheese. If they had tried that with me I would have spat them back out but Penny just swallowed it whole. She had a good sized mouth for swallowing things whole and a nice strong jaw line. The tablets didn’t seem to be helping and tonight she was in the kitchen so I was evicted, into the hallway. With only a baby gate stopping me from getting into the kitchen, I had no where to go and no company. It was so lonely waiting there. I could have sat on the sofa but there would have been no one to stroke me and I am the puppy…well I am, until I am officially 2 years old. I decided, I was not going to be pushed out.

So I did the only thing I knew how to and leant up against the baby gate and barked. I thought just one ‘woof’ should get their attention. I made sure it was a really deep ‘woof’. You would never believe what she did next. She walked up to the baby gate and told me to get down. Patted me on the head and then shut the kitchen door. The audacity. How could she do that to me? Needless to say I was far from happy. How could she not appreciate my cuteness. I was outraged by the situation. I just wanted to get some of the hugs and love they were giving Penny.

All I could think about was how I could get in there or at least see what was happening. Luckily, the door is half glass so I leant on my back legs, front paws holding onto the top of the baby gate and I could see.

I could see both humans knelt on the floor, Penny was in front of them and the human was blowing into Penny’s mouth. Penny was motionless. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful. The human did it again and then pressed on Penny’s chest, but Penny just lay there. The humans looked at each other. There were tears streaming down their faces. They fell to the floor and hugged Penny. They wrapped her in their arms in the biggest embrace I have ever seen. He then pulled away and went to get a blanket from our bed. He took Penny out of the Human’s arms and wrapped her up.

I had no idea what was happening. I was just focused on how much attention Penny was getting and how that cuddle they gave her looked amazing. I wanted one. So I barked and I barked and I barked. I knew more than one bark would get their attention as they would not want me to wake the children.  It was working! He took Penny and she came to open the kitchen door.

The door opened, the baby gate opened, I ran in. I leapt at her and she knelt down and wrapped her arms around me so tight.

This is what I wanted. This is my cuddle time.

“I am so sorry Lillia. We tried. We did everything we could. We just couldn’t save her. I will miss her so much. She was with us for so long and saw so many memories and was a part of so many occasions. Now she is gone. How are we going to tell the children? They will be devastated. I am so sorry Lillia. She never wanted anything but love. The only thing she did wrong was to not live for longer. My Penny has gone.”

And then she let go of me and he came back in and he took her and cuddled her. In a way I was quite pleased, I was getting soaked with the tears streaming down her face. It reminded me of bath time!

I toddled off and went looking for Penny. I couldn’t find her. So I thought I would retire to the utility, where my bed is. Hopefully Penny was keeping it warm for me, but she wasn’t there. I wonder where she is, she couldn’t have gone far.

Perhaps she will be back again in the morning.