Alfie

Alfie 24/03/08 - 19/03/13

Whilst enjoying reading Custer's blog, you may from time to time see a reference to our dear 'Alfie' well this was Alfie.

Was a very similar story, I just wish I had kept us his blog more, now I do know just how precious time is and just how quickly you can loose the ones you love so.

Alfie came to us from a private homing on 31st October 2010.  We had not long since lost our last Greyhound 'Dave' and the place was too quiet for us with Jaja and Tess.  We were told Alfie was a result of a relationship breakup, no other problems.

It turned out Alfie had a disability were his legs would just collapse every six weeks or so, and a very bad case of hip displacia, not to mention a lack of socialisation with other dogs, and a rather BIG dominance problem.

Alfie, took an awful lot of time and training.  During which time we did not realise just how much we had become to love him, and he was part of us.  OK, he wasnt perfect but he was only 4 years old and we had only been with him a couple of short years.  But we did have his aggression under control with a ball or a treat, and full focus on us.  He had learnt a lot, loved his training school and his scent work, and had a big fanclub of people who also thought a lot of him.

In January I noticed he was not 'right' we knew his hips were not good, but this was more than that.  By February we did the first lot of xrays that revealed little, but he was in a lot of pain and the vast amount of pain killers he was taking were not working, on March 19th I booked him in for more xrays were it was revealed he had bone cancer in his legs, heading to his already faulty hips, nothing could be done, so we did the kindest thing and said goodbye to our wonderful handsome boy.

One of the hardest things about this horrible cruel illness is Alfie looked fantastic, nobody would believe he was so sick.  Including him.  He still ate all his meals and tried to play, went for short walks and slept in our room - though 'Daddy' had to carry him up and down stairs for the last month.

Alfie never reached his 5th birthday, the gap he left behind was a pain we will never loose.