Goodbye to our Poppy

I mentioned in my last post that we had a personal tragedy recently.  I did a short post about it on FB after it happened and I've been meaning to post it here but it's been hard to write about it without crying.  We lost our precious Yellow Labrador, Poppy, on 11 March and she was only 7 years old.

She hadn't been herself since before last Christmas and the vet thought she had a stomach bug.  We always thought she'd eventually get over it as she just seemed a bit poorly and it didn't stop her from doing all of the normal things.

We became really concerned when we picked her up from the kennels when we returned from our Thailand trip in February and she had lost over 3.5 kilos during her stay there.  We managed to get her weight back up a bit, but then she started to become a fussy eater and would barely move.  I won't go into the rest of the gory details of her bodily functions, but she was definitely not right.  The vet still thought it was a stomach infection, but we insisted she was referred to the Royal Veterinary College.

It was there that the oncologist, Stephanie, found Poppy had pancreatic cancer that had slowly spread over the months to her stomach and lungs.  She only had a 13% chance of recovery after months of treatment and then, if successful, would only prolong her life for 4 or 5 months.  We decided to put her to sleep and it was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life.

As our first dog, I read up on how to look after the Labrador breed and even dog psychiatry books so we could be the best parents for her.  Steve chose Poppy from a litter of boisterous puppies.  She was the one who was very floppy and couldn't even stand properly!  She was so cute and when we chose her the breeder put a dab of Tippex on her ear to mark her as ours.

She had two hip replacements before she was even three years old and wasn't very happy when we brought her new "sister", Lulu, home!  Poppy loved her walks, being with her "grandparents", going swimming, fetching things thrown to her in the sea, sniffing out old tennis balls, being allowed on the sofa and, most of all, eating as much as she could.  A typical Labrador.

I can't write any more, the tears are free flowing again!  To end on a happy note, here are few photos of her to remind me of the happy memories she has left us.

First snow adventure

A typical sitting pose

Being tolerant of Lulu!

A rare sisterly moment, allowing Lulu to groom her!

Cool dog at Birling Gap, one of our very many happy trips there

Steve and I with our baby

 Goodbye Poppy, we will always remember and love you.