R.I.P. Scallywag

We rescued our dog, Scallywag, from a "street seller" in Hout Bay in January 2000.  These "street sellers" use their adult female dogs as money machines.  Once the puppies are "old enough" the "sellers" walk in amongst the traffic, holding the puppies up, and tell the people that drive passed if they don't buy the puppy, they are going to drown them / throw them under a car's wheels.

When we took the tiny puppy, as yet unnamed as Scallywag, to the vet he had his  shots, was dewormed (he had an absolutely enormous amount of worms inside his little body) and the vet discovered he had mange.  We managed to sort that out, but he was left with a hyper sensitive back area.

On the 5th August 2015 Scallywag our dog, had a seizure.

One of our first dogs (Winston) had epilepsy, and we thought that Scallywag was now displaying the same symptoms.

Scallywag
January 2000 - February 2016

He was rushed to the vet by RMan.  The vet established that he had biliary - faulty tick and flea medication / tick collar had failed to protect him from the biliary and that it had affected his brain.  They managed to save him.  But he wasn't the same.

He gradually got slower, and more feeble.  He wasn't that keen to go outside - that was partly due to the effort involved, and also due to the nasty rooster we used to have, who kept trying to attack him (and me).  His aged eyesight couldn't differentiate between the rooster and the hens / chicks.

His back legs haven't worked so well for the last 3 -4 months.

And he became incontinent in the last months.

Yesterday, he suffered what we think is a stroke.

Again he was rushed to the vet.

We decided that the kindest action we could take was to let him go.

Not an easy thing to do.  But the fairest action - for his benefit.

He is no longer confused.  He is no longer in pain.  He is no longer going to battle to climb the two back steps in order to re-enter the house through the kitchen door.

He is at peace.

And he leaves a big hole in our lives because he has been with us for 16 years. 

Scallywag and RMan were like peas in a pod - they were besotted with each other.

How is it that animals have the capacity to become such a huge and important part of our lives - of the family?

Over the years we have had the pleasure of sharing the lives of:

Panda - a fawn and white St Bernard
Winston - a fawn and white St Bernard
Baron - a fawn Great Dane
Muts - a grey cat
Puddy Pat - a ginger cat
Topaz - a fawn Great Dane
Fluffy - a white Maltese Poodle
Randy - a brown, fawn and black brindle Boxer
and now Scallywag - a fawn, black and white Collie / Golden Retriever mix.

They are all still sorely missed.