Thank you all so much for your good wishes and Blobs for your phone call. I'm not being dramatic when I say it is something awful that I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. I'm trying to be upbeat and remember the good times we shared together but that sometimes makes it worse. I hope that time will help but the house is empty now and I'm missing him so much.
Max came all the way from London yesterday to spend time with me and we took Hector's beds and bowls to recycling because they are just too potent a reminder of my best friend in life. Just one glance at an empty bed was enough to set me off again so they're now gone and I can't thank Max enough for all the trouble he's taken and for the love and support he's given me. I've been so lucky to have two such brilliant sons and my nephew is travelling down from London to be with me on Sunday morning.
I'm sorry if this seems overly sentimental or maudlin but it's just been me and Hector together every single day for the past seven years and we've had only each other except for the time when I was in hospital with my heart problem. But there's one funny story I don't think I shared on the forum. Max's mother and my daughter took it in turns to house sit with him and did a great job. When I finally got home from hospital, I expected a huge greeting from him but that ruddy hound pointedly ignored me and wouldn't even come to me when I called him. When we were watching telly in the evening he sat at my daughters feet, not mine as he always did and turned his head away whenever I looked him. This went on for two whole days until finally, late on the third day, he left my daughter's feet and came over to put his head on my lap. At last I was forgiven for having left him for so long!!
Anyway, Sleepy Hollow crem has messaged me to say that everything's been done and I'm collecting Hector's casket tomorrow to bring him home to be with me where he belongs. And I've made arrangements that we will still be together for always when my time comes.
PS: For those who might think that I'm prattling on about a 'mere dog' I can say that I'm also no stranger to human tragedy either. My dad passed suddenly in the prime of life when I was 11 years old; my step dad, a lovely man, was also taken before his time; my sister died when I was in Spain; a close friend commited suicide by hanging himself from a tree; my partner of 15 years died of cancer a few years ago and, in the recent past, I've lost a number of close friends, mainly to cancer. But worst of all, I lost a son, and Max a brother, when baby David strangled in his mother's womb - worst of all the pregnancy was so advanced that the baby had to be delivered when we all knew he was dead. All horrible things and I know that we've all had our share of tragedy for which my sympathy is unbounded.
