Guest blog from Bella – the farm dog

Somebody’s coming … galloped to the gate and checked out the scenery.

Nothing! Just a couple of moo-dy old cows glaring balefully at me.

Then, suddenly, there was a flurry of activity. People arrived and started unpacking stuff.

Sniffed them … hmmm … never met these humans before.

Nope … not even the little one.

Heard another car pull up and bounded back to the gate.

Oooh … these are familiar smells … they belong to my friend, Fudge.

Mom, Alpha and Grandma!

We all smooched. Then Fudge appeared.

Shame … she looks a bit unsteady on her feet.

Maybe the long trip has been a bit much for her.

Driving in the car makes me feel horrible too.

We did the little sniffy backside welcome dance thing but Fudge was not as interested as she usually is.

Turned out the little person’s name is also Bella.

Was quite confusing, every time someone called “Bella” I obediently presented my own furry butt, only to be told … “Not you dog Bella. Human Bella”.

Later on that evening I accompanied all the humans down to the tennis club.

Sadly, there was a nasty little snack there that tried to pick a fight with me and I ended up being sent home.

No fair!

Fudge got to stay.

She chose a smart spot under the braai and licked up all the chop fat that landed on the floor.

Lucky for me Fudge’s mom is a softie and she snuck me a whole chop when nobody was looking.

I’m allowed to sleep inside now – although my humans have gone off to Australia for a bit so I’m still outside.

Hope they’ll be back soon – it’s a tad lonely without them.

Slept with Grandma in my humans’ room.

Fudge slept next to her mom in their room.

Poor thing, she keeps having these weird hic-type things.

Don’t think she is feeling very good.

Next day, Alpha, Mom and I took the little person for a walk down to the river.

Felt bad because Fudgie stayed home with the others – but I never miss a chance to have a swim.

Went leaping and flying as soon as I spotted the water.

Oooh! A dip in the river is just soooo delightful.

Paddled around chasing my own tail for a bit.

Then shook some water on the little person – come on – play with me!

Seems she is not as keen on the water as I am.

The following morning my poor friend Fudge looked even worse.

Her mom and Alpha looked really miserable too.

Next thing I knew they all went off in their car.

Oi! Hullo! You’ve just arrived.

You can’t leave now.

They came back much later, but sneakily parked the car by the orchard.

They were both weeping and snicking.

I could not see Fudge anywhere.

Then they hefted out her duvet and foofled around.

Mom came inside the fence and looked around for Fudge’s ball.

She took it back to the orchard.

Something was terribly wrong.

I watched whilst they spent a long time in the orchard.

Then they got back into the car and drove around to the proper parking place.

I dashed up to the gate.

Mom buried her face in my fur … Oh Bella, she wept … my Fudgie is gone.

Alpha’s face was all wet too.

Gave her hand a lick – no worries – I’ll look after you.

I did not leave her side for the next few days.

Note from Mom:

As you may know, our darling Fudgie started suffering from epileptic fits in February 2016.

Eventually we were advised to put her on meds (Pexion) which she’d been on for about four months.

In the beginning the pills worked well – but in the last few weeks they had become less effective.

Fudge had had a couple of full-on fits in the space of a week and had taken to jerking and tikking a fair amount more than before (hence the foam rubber under the bed).

Then she’d have days when she was just fine.

She travelled peacefully to the farm in the Eastern Cape.

We were all looking forward to no stairs to worry about and a huge garden, river and veld to play in – albeit very downscaled playing to what we were used to.

It was very windy for the first few days and this bothered Fudge greatly (there is no wind in Pretoria!!!).

She started flatly refusing to take her pills.

No matter what delicious morsel I stashed them in – she was not interested.

Her condition got worse without them and I had to resort to forcing them down her throat.

Something I had never had to do before – not even last year when she was so sick with IMHA and had to take over a thousand pills.

She also started drinking copious amounts of water and we feared her kidneys might be packing in.

She was not sleeping much and every time her eyes closed she would jerk awake.

I spent large chunks of the nights sitting on the floor gently stroking her and holding her paw but she was clearly uncomfortable and distressed.

In two days her quality of life severely diminished right before our very eyes and we could see that she was suffering – stoically – in good old Fudgie fashion.

This time it did not look as though she was going to rally around as she had done so often before and be okay again.

It was December 23 and we were out in the boondocks – halfway between Barkley East and Rhodes.

There are no vets on tap like there are in the city.

We had to make a tremendously difficult and heartbreaking decision.

One that was best for our precious doglet.

Kerneels, Chris’s brother, kindly helped us to locate a vet in Aliwal North who was willing to assist.

He mentioned that he had to go out – if we missed him we should just wait.

We drove for two hours and were incredibly lucky to catch the vet just as he was leaving.

He agreed that there was no need to cause extra stress and move Fudgie from her comfy spot on the back seat, all snuggled on her pillow and duvet.

He was gentle and quick.

Our hearts shattered into thousands of pieces as we held her whilst she breathed her last.

We took her back home to the farm and buried her in the orchard, next to little Zorro (my mom-in-law’s Pekinese) who had gone to the Rainbow Ridge a month or so earlier.

Fudge, the big-hearted dog with the blog, now has the most fabulous resting place.

Her life was a ball.

Thank you all for loving her almost as much as I did.

Ginny Stone