An Unexpected Farewell or A Hole in my Heart

Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Ringmaster and the willingness of Scully to babysit Peanut for me, I recently took a brief hiatus from life and spent 10 days in Scotland with one of my best friends. The trip was fabulous! Although Scotland was not really on my top 10 list of countries to visit, I fell completely in love with the place. If I could, I would live in the Isle of Skye or Oban . . . . or at least spend my summers there (I'll try to post pictures soon).

The trip, however, was marred by the loss of my best canine pal - Dudley (aka, the beast). I had been out of the country less than 24 hours and problems between Mr. Ringmaster and Dudley erupted. After a week of agonizing, Mr. Ringmaster determined his course of action and carried it through before I returned from my trip.

I get it. I guess. Few people thought that Dudley could co-exist with humans without putting someone in danger. I had been working hard to manage Dudley's personality disorder and had made some incredible strides with him. He was calming down a bit - at least with me. He had learned some great tricks and we were getting ready to compete in herding trials. I believe with more work, things could have been even better. Unfortunately, however, not everyone was willing to put forth the same effort. Sad. Very sad.

So, this little pathetic post is dedicated to my sweet, snarky, spooky-smart Dudley. With the exception of a few weeks for vacation and some training for him, I had spent every day with Dudley. He was my saving grace through medical dramas, death of loved ones and marital strife. I'm so sorry that by taking a vacation, I somehow let him down. He was a good dog and I will forever miss my Puppy Dud.