Not so homeward bound.

Well, after a pretty deep low, the tail end of this week really picked up and I was having a great time. (My thanks goes out to all the ethanol out there).

And so I get woken up by a phone call this morning, (well some minutes past 12:00), which is my mother calling to say that molly got put down last night.

Now, I've had a multitude of pets over the years (seeing as I live on a farm), horses, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, a parrot and have looked after peoples hamsters/rabbits/African snails/rats/mice/chinchillas/tortoises/reptiles ...etc etc. Invariably, as most of these predated me, they kicked the bucket at some point during my lifetime, many times I was there at the time, and so I am well accustomed to the loss of a small furry animals life. In, general, I usually feel that for whatever reason they have died or had to be put down, there was nothing I or anyone else could have done, and it was their 'time to go'.

This time, is different, I wasn't there when it happened. In fact I haven't seen Molly for approx 1.5 months and was quite excited about the prospect of seeing her again and watching her tail wag violently in excitement as I get back from uni. Now, I haven't had the chance of saying goodbye, If I hadn't been at uni, she still would have had an inoperable tumor on her bladder (well, financially inoperable, 7 grand for a specialist operation at a veterinary college) but at least I would have had the chance for a final goodbye before she set off on a final voyage to the vets.

I was told about my grandfather dying in the same way, he died from salmonella from a bad goose egg, I knew he was ill and I got to see him, but I didn't know he was so ill that I wouldn't see him the next day. At the time I was about 7, really the only memories I have are being bounced on his knee and helping him grow veg in the garden. But I remember that when I got woke up the next morning and my mum told me he had died, I wasn't particularly upset, but I didn't realise what was happening at that age, I just went to school and everything was the same as normal. My other grandad died before I was born, or when i was very small, because I have no recollections of him.

But that's straying away from the main point that, I wasn't there when it happened. My dad, must be in bits (at least on the inside), because he has always had a 'one man and his dog' relationship with any big dogs we had. Jimmy (before my time), Jilly, (first weimaraner), and molly now. My dad has always been the best provider, making sure the rest of the family has everything they want, and keeping happy fixing things around the farm, running with the dog and looking after the horses as things to occupy his time between working at home. I just hope he is ok.

and for those who don't know what a weimaraner look like:

A weimaraner puppy (with a docked tail, which we never did to ours). I always remember the summer we got molly because we got back from picking her up, and the man to install sky tv arrived. Was one of those amazing days, when you get a puppy and a broad range of awesome tv channels!

Our first weimaraner was a particularly clever dog. Molly wasn't, she was a bit dim, but nevertheless very affectionate and loyal. She knew when she had been naughty, because she makes a face like in the picture above where she wrinkles her forehead and makes the most innocent puppy eye look imaginable.

These aren't pictures of molly, but they are of similar looking dogs. Some wiemaraners are quite stocky and powerfully built where as molly was thinner and more greyhound like, she also had a longer and thinner face.

She also liked to sing of (course!). If you sang a song near her she would start howling in a (very roughly) similar fashion.

And there was the one time she was out for a run with my dad, and she chased a squirrel through a barbed wire fence ( >.< ). Which my dad had to carry her back home and then go get her stitched up at the vets. Was a really nasty gash that sliced right down the side, but it healed remerkable well and there was only a very small scar left.

I could reminisce for ages, but im sure you're terribly bored by now.

Merry christmas peeps o/