When my 20 year old son walked in the door with a cat box and said surprise I was not expecting to see a little fox red Labrador puppy. First instinct oh my goodness he is beautiful but going to be a lot of work. How wrong I was. Stuart and I tossed and turned for an hour or so deciding on a name for this absolutely stunning little boy. And finally it was decided Buddy was his name. From the beginning he followed me around, no matter where I went he was there; whether it was the sitting room, kitchen or bathroom he was by my side. One day my blood sugar dropped like a stone so quickly, he seemed to know, he tapped my leg and started whining. I most certainly wasn’t feeling too good. Checked the old glucose level and it was sitting at 3.1. This little guy was onto something. He carried my clothes, giving sets for my feed, he became my assistant. Very soon he was my “Buddy’ our amazing fox red Labrador.
Buddy was a gentle lab. Despite being of a big frame he cuddled me softly. Walked at my pace. Super with children and other animals. So much so with other animals we got him a wife. A stunning yellow Labrador called Bella. They became inseparable; very much husband and wife. I bread them and had two litters. Buddy was at the birth of both sets and very hands on the the puppies. A very modern parent. We keep in touch with several of the owners and they have visited and brought the labradors back to visit.
Buddy as an assistance dog was so amazing. He always knew what made me tick. Tended to know I needed to sit down before I did. Such a clever clogs. He always knew best, would jump up on the sofa beside me and snuggle in and we would fall asleep in the afternoon. Or reading a good book, or listening to music; any track, just ask my Alexa to play it or listen on my phone using my Amazon music app . So calming and most definitely make me feel at ease. One day my nurses were in to give me my treatment, there were two of them. One nurse took a seat to read the notes whilst the other was drawing up the meds, etc. Buddy walked over to the nurse that had the notes and gently tapped her on the leg with his paw. I asked her if she had ate breakfast. Bearing in mind it was 11.45am. She said no I skipped it this morning. Buddy tapped her again and again. I asked if she would take her blood sugar level with my machine. Which she did. Her level was sitting at 3.6 – Buddy knew it was below 4 and she was hungry. She ate something and immediately her levels increased. Buddy was happy and the nurse felt better.
Did this dog complain about anything? Heck no. One day he had really sore pads on his feet and I rubbed in balm. You could see he was in pain – he never pulled away, barked or winced. He trusted me implicitly, if I said this is what we should do he would let me do it.
What he loved was to cuddle in, go for a ride in the car and most of all walk in the back field. He was a home bird, right to the end. Buddy was only feeling poorly for a couple of days and died in my arms at home with Bella and my hubby Steve by his side. Just what he would have wanted.
It Has been a whole week now without my beloved boy. Bella and I are helping each other through it. Bella has never been a dog on her own. She will miss having him here as much as I will. Although he was a placid quiet dog, the house is eerily quiet without him. Yes I am very upset and could cry a river at the thought of him no longer being at my side but what I have to remember is all the wonderful happy times we had together. The great many years and joy he brought not only to me but to us as a family. Thank you my beautiful Buddy our amazing fox red Labrador for being part of our lives. I love you.
If you enjoyed reading this post please feel free to read further posts on my blog page. Or you can read some medical based posts at my other site EJY Medical Writing.
My Buddy boy loved to help with carrying my socks. I loved to buy quality socks for all the family at The Socks Box
smile each and every day 