Departed pets;

had to say goodbye to another golden boy today , Alfie our 3 and a half year old golden retriever had to be put to sleep , sleep well my puppy , and all those confusing thoughts are gone forever , will see you on the rainbow bridge soon ,

thanks jellybear , at least he's at peace now .

So sorry for your loss Cork exile. lovely memory's to have of him, what a lucky boy you took him in to your heart and home. sleep well Rex.

My Staffy, Molly, who's been with me for 17+ years passed away today.

Spent the night with her listening to soothing music comforting and talking to her throughout.

She passed away peacefully with a Pedigree Dental Stick in her mouth which she was so adamant at trying to chew on during the journey to the vet, she absolutely loved them... so I had her buried with it still in her mouth along with a pack of them between her front legs, having her wrapped up in my old leather jacket of which she got so excited whenever I put it on signifying we're going for her walks, often playfully throwing on top of her to which she'd play under.

Laid her to rest by the apple trees she loved to eat off every summer and autumn.

God I'll miss my sweetheart! 😢

RIP my dear, may we meet again.

Beerwolf, So sorry to hear about your beloved Molly, What a wonderful life she had with you,Thank you for sharing your photo, gives a lovely insight into her life. Take care of yourselves. Sleep tight Molly.

I knew the time would come when I would have to post in this thread. At the end of January we lost our beloved eldest lady Coco. She was 14.5 and finally succumbed to kidney disease. She had her fair share of ailments in the past few years, she was getting stiff and arthritic since maybe 2017, had become a little bit incontinent around Christmas 2019 and started going deaf at the start of lockdown in 2020. But her kidneys were noted a few years back at a senior health check as starting to wane. We got her the kidney food, which of course she hated. I went onto forums to find home made foods that were low in salt and phosphorus to supplement it and it was all she ate in the final months. In her final few months she would go and thump on the fridge door when she was hungry as she knew that was where her food was now kept.

Just after Christmas she started to get quite wobbly, she alread had muscle wastage from the arthritis and the kidney disease exacerbated it. Bloods weren't good at the start of Jan so we knew it wasn't going to be much longer. When she stopped eating we knew it was time, I got one more blood panel to be sure but they only confirmed what we knew was coming. While her body had finally failed her, her mind was still 100% so her final journey was not going to be me bringing her into the vets where she hated going. Our vet came out to help her go, so she took her final breath in her comfy bed while I was hugging her.

I'm tearing up writing this now, even though it's been over 2 weeks and we've finally started to smile and think about just how brilliant she was. She was so, so clever, she trained us, rather than us training her. She loved the company of all the dogs we brought in, of course all our other setters, but in particular she was drawn to black greyhounds and lurchers, she would flirt outragously with them! She helped Benson when he arrived a shell of a dog and realised now she had a partner in crime to get up to some mischief with. She communicated so well with us, and with paws, gestures and eye movements would literally tell you want she wanted. We will miss her so, so much. Sleep well Coco Peggy.

@borderlinemeath So so sorry to hear, its a heartbreaking time.

What a wonderful tribute to such a special lady.(tears in my eyes reading it) It's so hard to let them go, But lovely to hear she went to sleep at home. It's still early days, allow yourself time to grieve, take care of you all.

Run free Coco Peggy. R.I.P

Thanks so much for your kind words. I know everybody thinks their dog is the best (and they all are!) but Coco was one in a million. She gave so much to her humans and her other dog pals and was part of our lives for so long that we still feel lost without her. I was so relieved she got to go at home. Our vets are lovely but she was one of those dogs that absolutely hated going into the building. Not so much the veterinary staff, but the smell, the poking thermometers in places they shouldn't be and the times she needed to be sedated, or rather the wooziness of coming around from sedation. She never minded the odd injections for vaccines but could see the intranasal KC coming a mile off. One more than one occasion I had to bring it home to sneak it up her nose as she slept.

I looked up her breeder, I was just going to thank him for choosing her for us (I recall when we initially went to choose he pointed her out as "a good girl") and he died a few years ago, so never got to thank him. Or tell his elderly mother - who interrogated us as to our suitability for ownership - while simultaneously feeding us tea and sandwiches - that Coco had the best life a dog could possibly have. She had a family who adored her, doggy companions who adored her, every visitor to the house adored her. She would come out and greet people with a smile and nuzzle her head into their leg in the expectancy of a head rub. She got to run free in fields and at the beach, swim in the sea and rivers and spend every day with her family. She couldn't have wanted more from life. We were so grateful to have her.

Run free little Lucy ,really sorry for you loss Martin

Also in tears, so so sorry Martin, for your loss. It's heartbreaking, run free Lucy.

I watched this video the other day from Jackson Galaxy (a TV cat whisperer type guy) about grieving for your pet and it really hit home for me. Our girl is gone 18 months now and it still had me in tears. I thought it was appropriate for this thread.

And Martin - I am so so sorry for your loss. Lucy was a dote. I feel your pain.