Tuesday 21 December 2010

Always the way

Isn't it but? Isn't that always the way? You do something you've been putting off for ages and then when you do something comes along to spoil it. See, I posted some photos of our new life and new friends to my flickr stream:
 here
and the very next day one of the new friends has gone. Dead.

I got up Monday morning as usual to let the dogs out for their first pee and poo. Roxy and I saw a fox in the mist not twenty feet from where we were standing in the frost and snow. It's hard to know if Poppy sees anything as she spends an inordinate amount of time spooking herself with imaginary intruders - at least I think they are imaginary, for when you investigate the barking there is nothing there. Roxy took a run after the fox which was in no hurry and lost it in the mist as she does the muntjac she chases every day. They are always just out of reach and have techniques that render them invisible while in plain sight.

When Roxy got back from her fruitless fox hunt she and Poppy went back into their beds where they wait for walk number two after I or Polly has had breakfast. When the time came for walk number two Roxy was a hesitant starter. Well, frozen ground, crunchy snow would make anybody baulk. After fifteen minutes of treat bribes and false starts, I gave up. Break the routine and why not? It's cold.

Back in the feeding room Roxy refuses her food, not unusual, she'll eat it later. Roxy puts herself to bed. Later on I came back down to check the mail and let the dogs out for another stretch and then upstairs with us for a lie down in our currently chilly flat but not as chilly as the dogs' sleeping quarters. Poppy hirpled up the stairs with her arthritis as she does - really looks uncomfortable - and Roxy, Roxy who races up the stairs to be first can barely make it. When she did get up she wanted back down again and Polly took her back down to her bed and covered her with her doggie duvet.

Eventually we decided 'this creature is really not well' and informed her people. In the afternoon they took her off to the vet and that, as they say was that. Poor Roxy had a huge tumour and had to be put to sleep. A fleeting friendship. We only knew her for a month.

There won't be a burial in the grounds she loved as we can't break the frozen ground. She's been sent off to be cremated and this beautiful creature who enjoyed two years of life with the people who rescued her - rescued her from a small flat and brought her to 60 acres of Norfolk wilderness - will be back soon in the New Year.

Bye-bye Roxy aged 12.