R I P Bonnie

I haven't felt like blogging last couple of days, because I'm grieving Penny's mate Bonnie. Every Tuesday for years Bonnie has spent the morning with us, and many's the time we walked together when Bonnie was younger. Penny would race around while Bonnie just quietly, slowly explored.




From the first, Penny always deferred to Bonnie, never objecting when Bonnie took Penny's favorite mat.



The time was coming when Bonnie would have been too old, too blind and too deaf to continue to enjoy a fulfilling quality of life, but we didn't expect she would go as a result of that nightmarish possibility that haunts all dog owners - a car accident in her own yard. Bonnie died immediately, so she's at peace. It's the humans who continue to suffer anguish, wishing things could have been different.

But sometimes things just happen and there's nothing we can do about it.

Bonnie lived for three days of the week with Scruffy, the dog who lost his best mate this year. Now he's lost Bonnie also, so he's going to get lots of loving to help him get over it.

It was sad to see Scruffy lying across Bonnie's body as we tried to prepare her for burial. We gave him some time to realise she was dead and eventually he let us lift her and take her to the grave we had dug, standing beside us as the dirt was softly laid over her.

It was only recently that I took this photo of Bonnie, Scruffy and Penny resting together on a very hot day.



Here's Bonnie as I'll remember her - resting comfortably in our kitchen.



And here are some of my previous posts about Bonnie:
she explores Darebin Parklands after welcome rain;
mooching around our garden at her own pace while Penny races around in ecstatic welcome;
quietly asserting her dominance over Penny, her greatest admirer.

Penny will miss Bonnie too, but given Bonnie's age we would have had to cope with this issue soon anyway. It's the humans who suffer, having experienced the trauma of her sudden death. Penny wasn't there so she doesn't know anything except that Bonnie won't visit any more.

Unfortunately, Scruffy saw the accident, so he's the one we have to care for.

when a dog loses his best mate

Scruffy and Harvey were best mates. Scruffy hadn't spent one day away from Harvey's company and would pine if Harvey left the house even for a trip to the vet.

But Harvey was older, and Harvey had a heart condition...and last Wednesday Harvey's life came to an end.

So Scruffy goes everywhere with his human right now, to help him deal with his bereavement. And today he visited us for the morning.

I took Penny out into the street, because she isn't always welcoming of newcomers to the house. We 'met by accident' out there and passed and re-passed each other a couple of times, with praise for quiet behavior. And then we came inside.

Scruffy was timid at first and wouldn't leave his human, but then he loosened up and explored a bit; eventually he even went outside on his own.

Penny begged him to play, with puppy play-bows and woofs, but he's not up to that yet. Maybe next time.



The third little dog in the video is Bonnie, our regular visitor. She's old, too, and nowadays just wanders, deaf and mostly blind, from place to place, thinking her own doggie thoughts.