Our Hero, Sid, came to us on 12th September 2020 with his brother Peyton and, like Peyton, suffered with his health.  We did think they would be rehomed but they stayed with us for the rest of their little lives, some 2 years. 

When Sid arrived, we could see he had an issue with his left rear leg, which hung motionless and affected his balance.  However, we soon realised he was almost completely deaf as well (occasionally we could get him to hear a loud clap, but that was rare!).  He also suffered with poor, very oily skin, causing hot spots that irritated him, and he had a cute under-bite, but was losing a couple of those teeth as well, so he looked fairly bedraggled bless him.  He never lost that look, even after he would have been to the groomers!

After much physio and hydrotherapy Sids leg barely improved and the Vets decided that they needed to amputate.  That’s when we discovered Sid didn’t do anaesthetic very well.  He was knocked-for-six after the operation, couldn’t eat very much and slept a lot, but was also in a lot of pain.  However, within a week or so he rallied and was soon back to his bouncy self.  His walking never really improved but he was full of life and loved his walks – to see him running with his ears flapping in the wind was a real treat.

Sadly though, during one of his hydrotherapy sessions with wonder-woman Gemma Cooper (who taught him to swim!) we raised concern about one of his eyes.  Gemma said to get him to the vet immediately and unfortunately, it was found to be an ulcer.  We treated it for a couple of weeks but it didn’t repair and sadly, his eye needed to be removed. 

This meant our little fella was nearly blind as his remaining eye had a cataract in it, but he was still a trouper, we were in awe of him, how he rallied each time and took on whatever life threw at him. 

 

Losing his brother Peyton though was something too hard for him, and he never stopped searching for him, especially at night, and so didn’t rest as well as he had in the past.  In his last few weeks he appeared even more lost, bumping into things and going round in circles. 

However, on his last weekend we went to St Fagans with family and took a newly purchased special carry bag for him.  He was in it for about 5 seconds before he howled to get out.  He hated being trapped (and gave his groomer a tough time at every session) but never lashed out or hurt anyone.  So at St Fagans, he enjoyed walking round with us for nigh-on 4 hours and still stayed awake with us for the evening!!

 

He loved people and if we had any visitors he would be there, and he loved children, like his brother Peyton, he was happy for them to say hello to him, and he put up with their patting/stroking too!  However, unlike Peyton, he was great with other dogs and wasn’t phased at their size or any level of intimidation. 

Unfortunately, though we realised that he couldn’t be our hero anymore when all his sight went and he became very confused and frustrated, and we had to say goodbye.  In amongst all the sadness, it felt nice that I could finally tickle his tummy without him stopping me.  When he actually passed, his tail wagged happily for a few short minutes, which the vet said was normal, and which we read that he had met back up with Peyton already and they were playing together again!  Goodbye little man, we love you!! 

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