22 MARCH 2011…..R.I.P. BIRDY

About 11am, John was pottering about outside, and occasionally throwing a ball for Birdy, who would retrieve it and drop it back at his feet. After a couple of such throws, she brought the ball back – and dropped dead at John’s feet. Instant.

There had been no warning signs. She had seemed her normal self, right up to that moment.

We were both distraught, probably partly from the shock, as well as grief.

Birdy was buried by the camellia hedge, in a position we could see from the kitchen window. It was not far from where our previous dog, Butch, had been interred by son, back in 2000. That spot was now marked by a birdbath. We buried Birdy’s favourite cuddly blanket and ball with her.

It wasn’t until she was gone, that we fully realized just how much that often annoying little lady had endeared herself to us. I couldn’t stop crying.

John phoned our Vet, to try to get some idea about what had happened. We did not wanted her mutilated in an autopsy. Vet said it must have been a massive heart attack, or an aneurysm.

We decided to phone the lady who’d bred her, just for her knowledge, in case there was some genetic component to what happened. She was upset too, at the loss of one of “her” pups.

The house seemed empty.

In early April, the Bendigo family came down for the weekend. Grandson, who had been very fond of Birdy, had designed a memorial plaque, and daughter’s partner had it made up at her work. Grandson and John went shopping for a suitable rock, the plaque was attached to that, and we all placed it on the area  where she was buried.

Several years later, when we were moving ourselves to Bendigo, we decided it would be fitting to take the Birdy memorial rock with us, to be relocated in our new garden, since we were also taking the Butch memorial bird bath too. Memories…..