Clover's Diary

[Kayak]

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Sadly my beautiful, loyal best friend of 8 years Kay passed away on the 23rd of February. I did everything I could to make her happy over her life and she got the most well deserved peaceful death -- her heart simply stopped in her sleep at home. She'd aged quite a lot over the last year, developing arthritis and slowing down on walks. She went too soon for my liking but she deserved a peaceful death at home before her quality of life was affected by her age. She died while still active, happy, painfree. Couldn't have asked for a better end for a better friend.

Since then, Clover has been my saving grace. She was my partner's dog, and so has received pretty much no obedience training since we've had her, but now that Kay has gone I've started shaping her up. I was worried at first, as she would shut down quickly if she thought she wasn't doing right, but with some encouragement she gained confidence and has surprised me with how quick on the uptake she is. She really enjoys learning and I see a lot of potential in this little dog.

I'm going to document her learning, as that's something I didn't do with Kay and regretted. Here's our first video! We've been learning "front" and "look at me". The rest is just to keep her entertained while she learns

And a bunch of photos of her having a mad time at the park

 

[Kayak]

 

[JudyN]

I'm so sorry to hear about beautiful Kay xx

 

[Ari_RR]

Very sorry to hear about Kay. Way too soon.

 

[Kayak]

Thank you, it was a shock to find her but I feel she couldn’t have gone a better way. She deserved a peaceful death in her sleep, and her life was full and happy. She experienced so much and was by my side throughout every difficult time in my life. Honestly the best friend I’ve had, including people. She was put above everyone and I even moved to the middle of nowhere for her. She deserved every happy moment she got. I feel at peace knowing she died at home in her sleep after a life I’m proud to have given her.

 

[Whippylove]

So sorry to hear about Kay its always hard to lose our best friends x Sending you hugs x

 

[Josie]

Oh I'm so so sorry to hear this sending hugs x

 

[Kayak]

We got Kay back home today and the box is lovely. I'm picking up something to make a shelf for her tomorrow.

No new video but Clover has been learning "Twist", "Heel" and "Weave" this week. Here are some photos of our walks the last few days. Pretty shoddy weather! We also have some small-dog appropriate balls now so she won't look so ridiculous and maybe can learn to catch, lol.

 

[Ari_RR]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.
We kept the urn with Ari’s ashes too.
Every now and then I pick it up and hold in my arms, and I have tears in my eyes, and it almost feels like I can still hug my beloved boy...
It’s been 3 months since we lost him.
We have a wonderful new puppy now.
Life goes on, of course, but I miss him badly, every day still, and some days are definitely worse than others.

 

[Kayak]

I’m sorry about your boy, it’s always difficult to say goodbye to a dog. They aren’t just dogs; they’re friends; it doesn’t matter if they speak a different language.


I don’t normally cremate my dogs — the first dog I had that died was PTS and I was quite young, I didn’t really have the option to bring his ashes back. We buried my second dog that died, a Jack russell. It didn’t feel right leaving Kay at the vets. I’m not planning to cremate any other dogs though, as I’d have to get a catalogue to remember which is which in 40 years time. Hopefully I can continue burying them somewhere of significance like I did with my JRT when she passed, but really I’d have needed a digger for Kay’s grave.

Kay was my special girl and I couldn’t leave her at the vets, I feel a lot better now that she’s home.

I’ve got a nice photo frame, Kay’s urn, her favourite ball and her collar. I’m planning to put up two shelves, one under the other. Her photo frame can go on the bottom one and her urn and ball on the top, with a small picture of her with her collar hanging around it...

That’s the plan anyway. Photo should be up tonight as I’m hoping to get the shelves done today.

Something small but sad that occurred to me yesterday is that most of my screen names and online accounts are inspired by Kay, especially the photo websites like Flickr. I created it to follow Kay, and now she’s gone I’ve realised I need to create another one. It’s only a small thing but it gave me that icy feeling in my stomach for a second when I realised

 

[Nanny71]

The only other dog we had was a rescue called Shadow. My daughter was nineteen when she died she was very much her dog. At 44 she still has the ashes.
The rest of her dogs, cats, rabbits etc are buried in her garden but she says Shadow never lived there.

Dudley is only three so I hopefully have many more years with him

 

[Kayak]

Took a while longer as my day off turned into an 11:30am-11:30pm, but here it is — Kah’s very own wall. Just have to find a worthy photo! I have 33,000 on discs to look through, I’m sure I’ll find one...


I’ve got her paw print and I’m hoping to find a tiny photo frame for it that fits inside the little shelf on the left.

Clover is loving her training, super responsive which I wasn’t expecting — my experience with small dogs is less training, more “get the rats out of the barns” so to see Clover really enjoying learning instead of just play and the reward is great. Her “front” is nearly spot on and we’ve moved on to a proper “heel/finish”.

Her skittishness with big vehicles is getting better and she’s becoming more dog than puppy when interacting with new dogs outside too. Losing the puppy card!

Hopefully I can get a video tomorrow as I’ve got the day off (apparently).

 

[Kayak]

A short video of her practising her "Heel" and "Front". Won't be reliable for a while but she's learning very quick.

 

[Kayak]

Clovers been a busy pup and has learned quite a few new commands but nothing reliable. We’ve started to practise impulse control and staying in command until broken. She’s doing pretty well! We don’t often train with the ball (normally treats) but we practised around some distractions today on our walk.