I always promised myself that, of all the things I wrote on Thoughts, I would never post something that was melancholic, heart-strings tugging, and in-your-face emotive. However, circumstances dictate that I must write something a little raw today. On Friday 3rd July 2009, I lost a good friend, and I feel compelled to write a tribute to her. This is it.
Vyv was our dog. She was 18 years and just over a month old, which is pretty good for any canine. She was a tiny little Spitz, who in common with all small dogs had a huge personality and ego. She was also full to the brim with beans, and lived life to the full; we enjoyed many a holiday walking through some of Englands most beautiful countryside. She had deep brown and intelligent eyes, and the most beautiful spitz' smile, and I loved her. Still do.
She had a sarcastic sense of humour. Once, she appeared to have sprained her left forepaw, and we duly bandaged it for a little support, before settling her down and heading out for whatever chores called us away. We returned to find Vyv limping on her right paw, and the bandage sitting on the sofa. She was a picky eater, with a particular fondness for fish, and anything I happened to be enjoying at the moment. She was faddy too, liking things one week, yet literally turning her nose up at them the next.
And now she is gone. Part of me still can't believe it. We have been painfully aware of her age, although she has only really shown it in the last few months, and we were regularly asked if she was a puppy right up until late last year. But after a week of generally not coping well with the heatwave we've been having here, on Thursday evening she went off her legs, and on Friday morning we called in the vet. There was nothing that could be done, and we had to say goodbye.
I'm no longer bound by the thousand tiny inconveniences of living with an elderly dog. A thousand inconveniences that I would happily give up everything else to suffer once again. I'm still pushing a little to the edge of my plate to sneak to her, and I still reach to close the patio door to stop her stumbling down the steps to the garden.
The world is a hard place. Every day, children are starving, obscene amounts of money are spent on ever more spectacular ways for us to kill each other, and indescribable cruelty is visited upon those least able to defend themselves. In such a world, the passing of one small dog hardly matters. But it mattered to me, and I wanted to make some kind of public statement to that end. I am a better person for knowing her,and I'm deeply grateful to have had her in my life.
Thanks for bearing with me.
For Vyv, 1991-2009
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