Wednesday 25 July 2012

RIP Hell-Hound

NO PICTURES!

So I was outside my favourite pub tonight having a cigarette, and I heard the prolonged barking of a dog from a nearby house, the owner of both I know well.  Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, etc., except this time the barking was not quite so aggressive as usual.  Then I noticed the veterinary van parked outside, and surmised the worst.

This dog is not very well liked amongst close neighbours and passers-by, not because it is vicious toward humans, but because it will do it's damnedest to kill any other dog which walks anywhere near it's wide-ranging territory, and this is/was one big dog.  It looked like a cross between Huskie and Wolf, and I really think it may have been just that.  Bark, bark, bark, bark.  I finished my fag, then went back to the beer inside.

I timed my second smoke very well in a way, because I went out to see the female vet carefully open the back door of the van, then go back inside the house, leaving that door open as well.  Uh-oh...

The next thing I saw was two vets carrying a stretcher with the covered corpse of what must have been a very large dog (it took two of them to load it into the back of the van), with the owner - a friend of mine of long-standing - in tears as she escorted them out with their load.  The two vets must have waited an age before giving the lethal injection, and I don' blame them - that was, as I said, a HUGE dog.

Turns out it had lung-cancer, and also turns out that their immediate neighbours have been accusing the owner of smoking in front of the dogs.  Bollocks.  Dog's Bollocks, in fact.

Anyway, the upshot is that all the little mutts in the hood will breath a little easier tonight.  RIP Hell-Hound.

10 comments:

  1. We had a Labrador. He went down with lung cancer. I think like with people - it's no respect-or of animals either. He was fiesty, but we had to have the vet to give him a lethal injection when it got too much for him. A painful decision for your friend to make too.

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  2. Most non-UK European countries are not known for their welfare towards dogs. I very recently knew of two very sick dogs who were just left untreated to die in misery. Sad as it may have been for the owner; at least she did the right thing.

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  3. "Turns out it had lung-cancer, and also turns out that their immediate neighbours have been accusing the owner of smoking in front of the dogs"

    FFS! (For Fuck's Sake for those of you who don't know but I didn't want to spell it out because I know Tom hates expletives on his blog).

    Well I know all about putting a dog out of it's misery. Since there are few vets here I did it myself when Dinge was bitten by a viper. Why cause the animal to suffer a traumatic six hour ride into town when you can just put a bullet through it's head?

    Wasn't easy though.

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    1. Less traumatic than the usual 100 mile trip to an abattoir, I would have thought - Bang! - your'e dead.

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  4. Tom (Hippo), i agree with you, but i wonder if i'd have the strength to do what you did. I hope i am never tested in that way; i found it hard enough to call the vet when our geriatric cat had a stroke and whilst waiting for her arrival, Himself and i dug the hole (vet kindly paid us a house call).

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    1. What did I do? All I did was smoke a fag and watch it's enormous corpse being bundled into the back of a van - not too stressful for me.

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    2. Oh, sorry - he's called Tom as well is he? Now I understand. Carry on.

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  5. Ah Tom, it's the same old thing. Non pet owners can never quite get the point of owners of pets going to pieces over the death of their pets. I have a long line of dogs' graves in the field and I loved them all. My solution is always to get another asap - but not everyone feels like that.
    Also - lethal injections are painless - would that we humans could share a similar fate when our time is up.

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    1. What? Who said I didn't care and who said I didn't get the point of the grief?

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