The Last Post

This will be the last posting on Mossie's blog. Two weeks have passed since he went. His Mad-But-Not-Actively-Dangerous Woman has shed lots of tears but also had so many hugs and wonderfully kind messages. As Mossie remarked last year, "I know how nice this love thing is".

Bella (Carmwater Orange Princess or HRH if we're being formal) died in 2007. She had never quite got the hang of dignified old age and brought chaos and delight into our lives with equal measure. But there was a big hole in the heart. In a Google moment, rescue Border Collies slid into view and a few weeks later, Mossie arrived. Old, tired and scared, he had wound up in a rescue centre after being found chained up with broken teeth and sore paws from trying to break the chain. He came into my life ready to share all the love in the world in exchange for a safe and loving home. He’d been an outdoor dog and knew nothing of stairs, wall-string-things, washing-rooms and the like. But, everything turned out just as it should. We had the best possible fifteen months.

So, a decision to be made. Clearly, it would be a mad (barking mad, in fact) idea to continue Mossie's blog. The MBNAD woman might turn up somewhere else. I haven't a clue why I started the blog. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Writing was never onerous, in the same way as tumbling out of bed at 6 am to walk on a cold morning wasn't a burden. It was all part of life with Mossie.

But before we go, Mossie's blog was tagged by 65 Roses for a lovely blog award.




So here are my nominations for the lovely blog award:

The Dog's Blog
Get well and stay well, Jasper. So many bitches and so little time.

Bruce
Keep on bouncing Brucie and look after the Bushhouse.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee
Grow up fine and handsome, Jakey.

Henry the Leaphound
Stay noble, Henry and take care of Molly, Wee Pup, your Woman and her OH.

Keep writing your blogs and find four lovely blogs of your own to tag. I'll still be following and hope to enjoy reading about all your happy times.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this. It was fun, it was Grand.

Thank you for all the lovely kind words for a Mad-But-Not-Actively-Dangerous-Woman missing her Mossie.

"Just letting you now that I feel for you over the death of Mossie. One thing you do know is that the last year of his life was a good one."

"He had become a part of your family and was especially close to you, who had taken him away from his previous hard life and given him a year of love & fun."

"Poor Mossie, at least you can be sure that his time with you and the family was probably the best he could have hoped for."

" I was so sorry to receive your news"

"I am genuinely sorry for your loss of your beloved Mossie. I know how much you all loved him. He was very lucky and so were you to have each other"

"I am so sad he has gone. He was a good boy. Tears in my eyes"

"I had just read the blog this morning - got a bit weepy - we will miss seeing him with you too. Have a hug for yourself from me this time."

"We are so very very sorry ... thought about Moss and how sad you must be to have lost him and how we will miss walking with you and him too.

At the weekend, apart from his sore paw, he seemed to be in good health and very happy and confident. If there is any consolation it has to be that it seems he was not distressed by his illness for very long also that in the too short time he was with you he felt loved secure and comfortable."

"We were all so upset to hear about poor old Mossie, I couldn't actually speak, I noticed Bruce being hugged on Friday night in a head down nose on his back kind of way ( nothing said). But they have agreed that his retirement was very well spent and he would have enjoyed the luxury of being a house dog."

"I summoned up the courage to read Mossies final blog tonight. It's been a very strange week without him – as well as missing him on our walk, I cant get used to him not being in my passenger seat."

"I am so terribly sorry about Mossie and know how you are feeling, completely lost."

"What a happy and contented last year or so he had - I'm sure he had forgotten all the years that had gone before. I 'm glad he hadn't been ill or in pain for long as he had such a sweet nature. He was a very lucky dog to have found you and had such love from all of you.

The house is so empty with no dog around. Think of all the happy memories you have of his time with you and in time, when you can bear to look at all his photos, you can cry "happy" tears."

"So sorry to hear about dear old Mossie. I'm glad I met him."

"Mossie was such a lovely character and you clearly adored each other. I know it's no comfort but at least you know he had a wonderful, happy time for the last few months of his life."

Slán Mossie

After the mishaps of the last two weeks, Mossie was on the mend. No more bandaged paws. A good evening walk, a tasty dinner, followed by a sleep in front of the fire looking after The Tall One and his MBNAD woman. Grand, as he would say.

On Friday morning, he lay in bed and just wanted his MBNAD woman to sit close by and stroke him. Tests and a scan showed that he had a tumour on the spleen which was bleeding. His Little Dark One came home. In the late afternoon, with all the people who loved him by his side, he closed his eyes and was gone. Gentle, stoic, loving and true.

Huna'n dawel, heno, huna.
Suo Gan - Lullaby

"Night night, Mossie."

A Home for Poorly Boys

So we had lots of visitors over the turning of the year and the Litter came back to stay as well. The Hello-Mister-Woman and her Man. Tinker-Dog's people (and Tinker-Dog). Of course, I had to take it quietly since my paw was bandaged up but that was alright since we were sitting in the warm with the fire lit. Grand. A wee drop to drink and feet to sleep on. What more could a Colliewobble want.

We wished everyone a Happy New Year over and over again. I even learned to say it in Cat. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.



The days were really cold and by the time the bandage came off my paw, the Tall One was poorly. Lying down in his bed kind of poorly. Coughing. Sleeping. Coughing. I left the immediate patient care to The Cat since she is expert at curling up on beds and providing Humbug huggles. I kept checking that he was ok.

We were hoping to see Brucie's people but they were a long way off near Here when Here was There if you get my drift and then they all had the coughing-sleeping-coughing. They had a bit more too. Coughing-sleeping-coughing-chucking-up. Brucie's woman said they had to cross the border (no germ control there) to buy individual poptyping meals and pixie size puddings because they were off their food.

By the time the Visitors were leaving the Tall One was still coughing-sleeping-coughing. My MBNAD woman told him he couldn't go back to look for Hot Pixies but had to come back to Here with us till he's better. So, with a very full car and The Cat in her suitcase, we set off back to turn There to Here and back again. By the time we got back, the Tall One was very sad and tired. I wondered if my MBNAD woman would have to carry him indoors like she did with me when I fell over. She says he's got to stay with us till he's better. He's grand company for me in the day and when he had a bit of cheese for lunch, he shared it with me. She says we're her boys and she was glad that I was there to look after him. Which made what came next even worse...

My DB came along to go out for our middle of the day constitutional and when I got back, I fell over the front door step and did it again. That's right. Did it again. Rear nearside this time. Red stuff everywhere: all over the front doorstep, my bed and all points between. My MBNAD woman came home early, all dressed up in her going to work clothes and off we went in the car straightaway. Whole palaver all over again. Vet, clipped claw and bandage. She sat on the floor in the surgery and held me in her arms so that I knew she loved me even though it hurt. And it really did hurt. She held my head next to her and told me how it would soon be over and how much she loved me. I covered her going to work clothes in colliewobble hair. Then it hurt so much, that I peed. Thank Dog, I didn't get her coat.

I let her carry me to the car and then carry me indoors. After all, it don't matter if she gets a bit more colliewobble hair on her coat since it ain't fit to be worn for work at the moment.



Then I let her give me a jacket potato.

Not drunk, just falling down

We've had visitors and they've gone and we're just having a breather till the next lot arrive for the New Year. The Man with the Cat arrived for breakfast on Christmas morning. The Litter were here. The Lady from Next Door came to see us. A proper Woo Hoo.

I know all about Woo Hoo Christmas and New Year and the in-between time. I got parcels to open and so did Humbug. I got 2 new dinner plates and we went out throwing them on Christmas afternoon.

My MBNAD woman was really busy in the kitchen. She made lots of nice food and that included cooking the big dead bird that was in the wall-string-cold-cupboard. Giblets. That's what the really tasty bits are called. Giblets.

So now it's just me and and the Cat and my MBNAD woman. Lovely. We can all enjoy sitting in the warm.



All going too well, eh? All the Woo Hoo just like she'd planned and none of it bothered me this time. Didn't even mind when she went off to the the place with dead people in the garden. Well, not too much. Only shouted a bit.

So when we were out walking in the morning I had a little mishap. Cold and crisp just right for a morning walk. I admit that my nose and paws were not pointing in the same direction and I didn't expect the gravestone to be there under me. So I fell over and when I got up, one of my front paws really hurt and there was red stuff dripping all over the place. She carried me for a bit but I'm a bit big for her and it's not just the heavyweight winter coat. When we got home she bathed my paw but it still hurt. So we went to see the Vet. Apparently, they have them Here too. I gave him a hard stare hoping to discourage any unwanted gonad related activity. Turns out he only wanted to look at at my poorly paw. Looking was alright, but touching was not. So I gave him a little warning growl. He still didn't get the message. It hurts so just leave it alone. "Now come on boy, don't do that." So he carried on and that led me to one conclusion. I just had to bite him. Well, not really bite but just to get the message across that I would bite if he didn't desist. He didn't desist but I didn't expect what happened next. Before I could take affirmative action, a strap was put over my jaws so I could only make grumbly noises and not show them my teeth. Then he stuck a needle in my paw and the pain went away. If he'd just done that to start, I wouldn't have tried to exercise the teeth. Then he took away the broken claw and bandaged me up. Walking is a bit difficult and I have to be careful standing on three legs for a pee. It's a bit embarrassing when you fall over in mid flow.



But I am getting a lot of hugs. And we went visiting and I was called a "poor little dog". Evidently, poor little dogs get sausages. Hugs and sausages are making it all bearable.

In the bleak midwinter

First of all we loaded the car up with lots of stuff, then me, then the Cat. In her suitcase and with her Opinions. I had Opinions in my earhole from halfway across England and all over the Throw-Money-at-it-Bridge.

"Wales, Mossie, Humbug. Powys. We're Home".

For seventeen days worth of Home. We've turned There to Here for a whole seventeen days.

She's been busy adding more Woo-Hooery to the house. It's beginning to look like the control room of the Large Hadron Collider. We've even got some trees outside the front door with attached Woo Hoo. A ring of kindling stuck on the front door. Lights all over the place. And some sparkly attached to me. I feel a right Woo Hoo.

We went over the border to England to see Brucie's family. They're only just over the border so we can sneak through. Also when we go to that bit of England, we don't have to pay to get back. They've got lots of Woo Hoo too, including a big falling-over-so-don't-sit-too-close-to-it-tree. There were lots of people and dogs visiting them. Pretty golden bitch called Abby with a military background. Bit shy and didn't like her toes making click clack noises on hard floors. I gave her an encouraging nose to nose sniff to show her it was alright. And an old boy called Freddie. An Attack Spaniel. Turns out not to be so old and not much of an attack either. I gave him a serious, Don't-Forget-I'm-Top-Dog-Sonny sniff and stare. You know, shoulders back, slightly stiffened hackles, superior kind of look. Well, we ain't none of us got any bollocks so Top-Dog is an open question and it might as well be me. Then I sat down next to my MBNAD woman and let him sit the other side of her. Then there was Brucie. Being, you know, Brucie. Bouncing off the walls Brucie. If you remember last year, I had an ignominious moment when I got so scared of him that I had to hide behind his Man.

Brucie's Woman was specially nice. Was wearing a bright red dress and legs. The kind of legs that I just had to lean my head against for a hug. Cor-Lummee legs, in fact.

Off to the car-on-rails place to collect the Little Dark One. Grand.

Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds make up four.


Another trip to the car-on-rails place to collect the Tall One. She's really happy now. We're all here.

And there's a large dead bird in the wall-string-cold-cupboard.

The Collie in Winter

It's been a bit cold and sometimes I need a bit more warmth, especially when I've had a bad day. Had an embarrassing moment when I was out walking with my DB. Cool, sauntering along. Fell off the bridge into the stream. Except the stream was more like cold mud. Had to stand there till my DB came and hauled me out. Then I was a bit cold all day, even after being towelled dry.

When we sit down in the evening, I have a special blanket to sit by my MBNAD woman and I make sure that she notices that I like the fire by pointing at it with my nose. Still don't know how she makes it work since she never brings in coal or logs. It's not even a wall-string thing. Probably a bit of magic again since she kneels in front of it and says some incantations before the flames start. Anyway, once it's away, we can sit in front of it all evening without worrying about coal buckets. Grand.

But on the really cold evenings, I need a bit more warming up again with another blanket.



Of course, if the Little Dark One is here, then she sits on the floor and hugs me and I don't need no blankets then. The MBNAD woman brought a spare Little Dark One home last weekend. We were having a Here weekend and she was tidying and stuff like she usually does and the Little Dark One was out. But when she came back, there was another Girlie with her. They said that this Girlie came from the other side of the world where everyone is Upside Down. She looked the normal way up to me. They don't half talk some rubbish. Chatted the Upside Down Girlie up a bit. Tried the blarney. Said I had sad eyes. Heh heh

She's done some stuff for the Woo Hoo Christmas which includes a wall-string-tree and a ring of twigs stuck to the front door. Have no idea why she's stuck kindling on the front door. The wall-string-tree ain't like the one There which has just got little lights all over it. When she ties the wall-string-tree to the wall, it all lights up and changes colour. Very dubious taste.

I had a strange indoor dog moment the other morning. For sleeping arrangements, I have a rug on her floor by the bed. It's convenient for her to hang over the side of the bed and stroke my ears first thing in the morning. Well, ear stroking was so nice and then she stroked under my chin and the next thing I knew, I had stretched out on my back for a belly stroke. That's right, I let her put her paw on my chest. It's not as if I haven't known that she's the Boss in this house all along but I'm just not used to submitting to anyone. In later days on the farm, I was forced to submit when the young dogs bullied me. And I didn't like it one little bit. But you know, this was really rather nice. She just laid her hand very gently on my chest and stroked. And I lay there, feeling really loved and very safe.