Monty, my friend

Thursday, 1 September 2011, Day 282/365.

Monty, my faithful and dear companion.

She’s still with me and as you may be able to tell from the photo she’s getting on a bit. I estimate she’s about 14 human years old, nearly 100 doggie years – give or take.

I got her when she was about two years old and as I’m sure I’ve written here before she’s been a great addition to the family. As my son doesn’t have any siblings (she came along before he did) she’s been a great companion to him. In fact he’s told me on more than one occasion that he loves her more than he loves me. (Psst, I know that he doesn’t mean it because he’s usually cross with me when he says it).

A couple of weeks ago I had a really bad dream about her imminent demise and I woke up in tears. So it wasn’t a good day to go and see Red Dog that day. I bawled my eyes out while watching it. Despite this, I enjoyed the movie as probably only a dog lover can.

I loved the relationship he had with so many people. I can’t say why I cried because that will give away story lines. But I came out the cinema with red eyes. It was a little bit embarrassing.

A couple of days after that I visited a girlfriend and her dog’s about the same age as mine. His health has really  obviously deteriorated since I last saw him a couple of months ago. I’m dreading that phone call.

Unfortunately it’s a fact of human life. Our dog friends don’t live as long as us.

Monty’s well into her dotage now. She’s pretty much deaf. She shuffles around. She’s wobbly on her legs occasionally. When we go for walks she ends up walking behind me because she can’t keep up like she used to.

I try and enjoy every moment with her because she won’t be around forever. I know I’m going to be a worse mess than I was when I saw Red Dog when it’s her time – not that I want that to be any time soon.

Here’s some more photos of her I took with my new camera lens.