It’s never easy to lose a loved one be it human or animal. It’s even tougher to have to make the decision to let them go. I can only talk from a pet owner point of view, but I would imagine that it is the same for the decision of letting a human go.
Each experience is difference but each experience after the first, regardless of how easy or difficult, will always feel far more difficult as it brings back memories of your furbabies that you’ve had to made the heartbreaking decision to say goodbye to.
For us especially, it was so heartbreaking to lose two dogs in the space of 10months. Charlie, who was our special boy, passed away on 27th January 2022 after having him in our lives for 6 years and they were fantastic six years but that’s a whole different story.
Oscar came into our lives on 15th February 2022 after we decided we needed the pitter patter of dog paws back in our lives and the house just felt so empty without a dog. Oscar was part of a bonded pair from Dogs Trust and we saw them on their site, filled in form and were allowed to go see them. Our meeting was arranged on the 13th February in two separate appointments, one was a meet and greet, the second was to get to know them better if all went well in the first appointment.
The first appointment involved a lovely little walk with staff, Oscar decided that rabbit droppings were tasty food. We loved the two and were happy to go back in the afternoon. As it was raining in the afternoon, we were taken to a barn that had been refurbed as a dog play area. We were given a radio, and allowed to spend time with the boys. So a little time turned into three hours (oops), and as we were both on a night shift, realised the time, decided it was best to radio staff. All the checks were carried out that day, references sorted (thank you mum and dad) and we got a call on 14th to say that both Oscar and Buddy were ours, arrangements were made and we collected the boys on 15th.
What can we say about Oscar? He was a grumpy old boy that loved his food (he was quite vocal when it came to dinner time, or rather when he thought it was time for dinner) and a cup of tea in the morning (he even had his own mug). He loved to sleep upside down, if he had a favourite human, we think it was me. He loved his walks and his brother from another mother, Buddy.
Oscar came to us with a large lump on a hind leg, which was assessed as a fatty lump by both the rescue centre and our vets. Sadly over time the lump grew and it was determined to be cancer, the lump was removed and Oscar was so happy, he was moving freely, so clearly that lump was annoying him and possibly caused a little bit of pain. Roll on a couple months and the lump reappears very suddenly and quite large. Cue another trip to vets and sadly his cancer had come back very aggressively, in for an emergency op and we took the decision for leg amputation as the whole leg was riddled with cancer but nowhere else. The outlook was good after biopsy, Oscar was able to potter about a little bit, all cancer had gone or so we all believed. The bloody thing reappeared a month later in a lump the size of a boiled egg in his lower abdomen area, it was now clear that the cancer had spread previously to his lymph nodes but hadn’t been picked up by scans due to the likely size. Sadly there was nothing else us or the vets could do, we had exhausted everything other than chemo. Given Oscar’s age of 13, it was decided between us all that it would be better to not have chemo and instead to try and make his last remaining time with us happy and comfortable, we were given an estimated time of 1 month to 6months given how aggressive the cancer had been previously. Again, the cancer proved to be more nasty than we imagined, as the fucker grew so aggressively and Oscar’s third battle was lost on the 14th November 2022, after just two weeks from diagnosis.
His passing compared to Charlie’s was so quick, it highlighted to us just how much in pain he was and how exhausted he was at the end. He didn’t sleep very well at all the last three nights with us and hardly had any sleep on the last night.
I really hope that Oscar knew just how much he was loved, even in the 9 months we had him. He was such a lovely boy, my shadow and sous chef in the kitchen, despite being grumpy on occasion, Oscar was a joy to have in the home and I’m thankful that he was in a loving furever home for the last few months of his life and that he chose to spend those months with us.
I’ll leave you with this little video of Oscar letting his inner puppy out.
The Weird World Of Dub Mouse 