Nearly Wordless Wednesday 17/10

If you don't go away I will tell Honktopus to suck your brains out......

*Happy 14th Birthday to my dear departed Uncle Flynn. We know you are watching...........and laughing at us!*

The Galloping Field

Yesterday morning, Mum took me for an early morning walk to the Galloping Field.

The Galloping Field was named by Flynn, well, because this is where he used to gallop!

The field is actually a piece of open land adjoined to two rugby pitches (in the background.) Beyond them is a small wood which leads to a golf course. In the very far distance you can see the moors. 

Mum & I have an ambition that one day I will be able to run off lead here too.

Unfortunately, there are several exits that lead to fairly busy roads, so Mum says she's going to have to be a little bit more confident in me, before she'll trust me not to "do a runner" as she puts it!

My dear departed Uncle named these huts "Wabbit City". He used to enter the field with Mum at the top of a very steep slope and then would gallop half way around the field (never across the middle)  at full pelt with the rabbits watching (and laughing at) him!

Wabbit 1: "Oh look here comes Flynn....AGAIN. Bet you a fiver I have the nerve to let him within 20ft before disappearing into my house"

Wabbit 2: "You're on! If you can make him skid into the hut I'll make it a tenner!"

Wabbit 1's house.

Mum has no idea why there are always so many seagulls on the field; we are a good 70 miles from the coast!

I trust you will untie me from this rugby post before the game starts Mum.......Mum....MUM?!!

Mum don't move! There's a really BIG wabbit over there.....!

Any chance we can get on with the walk; I think I've posed enough.....!

Flynn

Today it is 1 year since we lost our wonderful boy Flynn

We miss you every day big fella. We always will.

Flynn

17 October 1998 - 25 May 2011

Rest in peace mate.

Hope Wamster isn't giving you too much of a hard time.....

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow... la la la

I am really excited because Mum is coming home tomorrow.... YAY!!!

See the dust on this sofa Mum!!!

As you can see, other mum has been running me ragged getting me to help with the housework.... Excuse me, but surely that is what you humans are for! Jeez, she even needed instructions on how to work the washing machine, I do hope that she doesn't plead ignorance about the vacuum cleaner too... surely she can't expect me to push that around!

I do hope I am going to get a present for all the hard work I have put in....

Don't I look really really cool in a baseball hat?

Now I REALLY need everyone's help with this... My Uncle Flynn always wanted one and so do I, but somehow our pleas fell on DEAF ears!

I have been a really good boy this last week and I deserve a present...

Pleeeeese Mum?

Of course I had to borrow one for the photo shoot but it would be oh so nice if I had my own.............

It would be so much nicer than a new scarf..........

Sooooo.... I need EVERYBODY to vote which present I should get.... If you can't decide which one just click the one at the top it's ok with me... and if any of your friends want to pop along and vote I would be ever so grateful, we need as many votes as we can get..... hehehe.... 

Deccy x 

We’re participating in this Saturday’s Pet Blog Hop, hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume.

In Memory of Flynn

Hello there, it’s Deccy’s Mum here. Under normal circumstances, my beloved son wouldn’t let me anywhere near his precious blog, but he’s a big hearted lad and he knows that today is a little poignant for his other Mum and me.

Today would have been Flynn's 13^th birthday. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on 25^th May this year. One minute he was eating his dinner in the sunshine, the next he bolted across the lawn like a bullet from a gun and then collapsed. Within 10 minutes he’d gone. Just like that. We couldn’t believe it; still can’t sometimes. We walked around like zombies for days. If I functioned at all, it was on autopilot. 12 ½ isn’t exactly young but I had such high hopes of him making a grand old man. He’d never had a major illness, he was fit and well as far as we knew. I guess it just wasn’t to be.

He always slept at the side of the bed and even now, half asleep in the middle of the night, I reach out to stroke his soft silky ears before I remember that he’s not there and never will be again. He took to sleeping very soundly in his latter years and sometimes my nocturnal ear tickling would startle him, causing him to leap in the air with a mighty growl, fangs flashing, until he realised it was just his old Mum. He would then spend the rest of the night gently licking my hand by way of an apology for nearly causing me to have a heart attack!

I remember the first time I met him on 26^th December 2001 at his racing kennels. There he was, this huge yellow smelly misshapen greyhound with a broken tail. I took him for a walk, or more accurately, he dragged me along frozen country lanes for half an hour, nearly pulling my arms from their sockets. I said I’d think about adopting him and went home to discuss him for hours on end.

 I have faults..many many faults but I like to think that I’m not shallow. Well, I might be about shoes and cars and trashy TV, but not about important stuff. I knew if I didn’t take him on just because he was going to be a bit of hard work and maybe he wasn’t at the front of the queue when the good looks were handed out, I would never be able to live with myself. I didn’t realise at the time, but he stole a piece my heart at the very first meeting.

I took him home in January 2002, collecting him from his kennels the day after he’d been neutered. He was still walking a bit like a recently dismounted cowboy! I was working freelance at the time and had decided to take some time off to settle him in. In my mind I was thinking about 4 weeks. In the end it was 10 weeks before I went back to work. People kept asking me when I was going back and I would insist that Flynn needed a bit more time. In truth it was me that didn’t want to leave him. Even then I needed him every bit as much as he needed me.

The first time he met his Granny (my mother) she looked a little startled and said something like “what an odd looking dog; only his mother would love him!” He was tall and very long. A bit like a stretch limo, he looked like he’d been cut in half and had an extra mid section inserted! It was therefore testament to his gentle disposition that she became his biggest fan. He always came with me when I went to stay with her, and often when I awoke I would find that he wasn’t in his usual place next to my bed. I would find him lying next to my mother, being fed digestive biscuits and  gently berated for dropping crumbs. She sent him money for his birthday and he always got a Christmas card. (My family are all slightly barmy when it comes to animals – I love them all the more for it!) He adored his Granny and losing him broke her heart too.

Most of us have big upheavals in our life from time to time and I’ve certainly had my fair share. There have been times when I really couldn’t have cared less about myself, and cliché it may be, but Flynn gave me a reason to get up in the mornings. He never judged, he just loved me. Our relationships with other humans can be complex; good and bad, genuine and fickle but there is a beautiful simplicity  about our relationship with our pets. We love them and take care of them and in return they trust us completely. It may take a while to get there but it’s all the more satisfying for it. The trust of an animal is the most precious gift we can be given and even on dark days I can’t help but feel just a little bit good about myself.

I was able to spend the last 12 months of Flynn’s life at home with him and I will always be grateful for having that time with him. I’m glad that he had a happy and safe home in the last years of his life. That is mainly thanks to his other Mum. I don’t think either Flynn or I would have done too well without her unending love, kindness and generosity. Flynn loved her. Scrap that; he idolised her. So do I.

This is an ink drawing of Flynn - broken tail and all - done by other Mum last Christmas.
I treasure it. 

Flynn was a dog in a million. I loved him to the ends of the earth and back. As Greyhound Gardens said yesterday about the loss of their beloved Roxy, we miss him more than words can ever express. But Declan helps. He really helps. To say that he has a few more issues than Flynn is a bit of an understatement but I really hope we’ll get there. Just like I told Flynn all those years  ago, he’s found his forever home now and whilst I have any choice in the matter, I’ll take care of him for the rest of his days.   

It’s been nice to meet some of Declan’s blogging pals. Maybe he might let me guest blog again sometime... but I’m not holding my breath!

Flynn
17th October 1998 - 25th May 2011