A Celebration of a Dog's Life

A short little post about our Whisper's last weeks, which may help one or two other people.

Emma and puppy training

Nicola and sleepy puppy

He did love a boat trip

Snow, snow balls, misbehaving - happy boy!

We knew Whisper was getting old - he was 12, with arthritis especially in the lower back and back legs, and he was pretty much completely deaf. We'd adapted to that. He was still the adorable border collie he always was.

Water therapy helped get those back legs working again

But then, just a month ago, he seemed a bit constipated. This went on for longer than we thought right so that's when we took him to the vet. Bells seemed to start ringing, and after a thorough examination, prostate cancer was diagnosed, high dosage pain killers administered, and guidance given on the palliative care that would be needed. 

Canine prostate cancer is rare, but sadly it seems to be very aggressive with no cure. It quickly spread through the spine and into the chest. We did our best to listen to Whisper, and he let us know when he'd had enough. He was still enjoying his food to the end, and even his walks.

On Sunday he was unable to settle down - just pacing the house. So I put him on a large soft cushion and sat with him all afternoon - he settled, his breathing settled, and we spent the time together. I did the same overnight, putting him on the bed. His ribs and all his under carriage were so sore that it seemed to hurt him to lie down. Hence the big cushion and the bed. Eventually he slept peacefully and soundly for about 3 hours, with his head and paw resting on me.

The following morning, yesterday, we took him to the vets. He's now buried in the garden near to the rabbit and I will be planting wild speedwell over his grave - these were the flowers in bloom in the woods on Sunday when he had a very short but peaceful last walk.

I don't know if the symptoms are typical of canine prostate cancer, but if sharing this story helps even just one person, then I'm glad to share. 

So, dry your tears and hear the good news - as a celebration of Whisper's life we will be donating 20% from all sales from our Border Collie page to The Animal Health Trust charity in Newmarket. It's an amazing animal charity - find out more about them here. Over the next few weeks we will be trying to add more collie designs and products so do check this page out from time to time. 

And we're just working out how to put a Donate to Charity button on our website, for those of you who may support our cause but don't particularly want border collie products. 

The RHS Spring Gardening Show, Malvern - a fleeting glimpse

There's not much opportunity to see much of the shows I attend when I'm on my own, but here are just a few bits that caught my eye while walking in in the mornings:

These alpines greeted me as I walked along to the Country Living Magazine's marquee each day

There were some fantastic gardens designed and created by various schools, all themed around children's books. These hedgehogs amused me

And some beautiful plantings designed with such creativity - I feel some new card designs coming on: 

This is one of the show gardens - very popular with the public, and with me - Boathouse No. 9 by Mark Eveleigh. If you're interested, you can find out more about the show gardens here

And these slates have nothing to do with the gardening show, but I love them. They were stacked up outside the b&b where I was staying

So, is anyone inspired to get out into their gardens now? (Weather permitting, as it's pouring with rain as I write this)

Colour blending when there's no time to dye

I use natural and dyed sheep's fleece for finishing all my greeting cards and art work, and many of the colours have rather bizarre names - horse, Buff Orpingtons, dachshund, pig, and the like (based on what we use them for).

Well, we've run out of "Mrs Nosey" - she was a bantam we had years ago, but in the studio we all know what this colour is. No time to dye any more at the moment, so it was out with the carders to do a bit of blending. I don't normally like to use merino tops as it doesn't have very much character, but needs must. Here I'm blending a bit of horse with a mixture of oranges to get what I hope will suit our Mrs Nosey.

Just the ticket!