You may recall that I posted about Rocky some time ago, he had a few rough patches in life. He was the only survivor of his litter, for a few years he was epileptic which luckily went into remission, but his health issues did not end there.
When he came to the studio he was paralysed in the back legs, his shoulders were so still that he couldn't use them much either, he needed assistance to go to the toilet, wearing a nappy the rest of the time. He got around in a small pram. On top of all that he was blinded in one eye from a grass seed resulting in the loss of his left eye. There was no sense that Rocky was suffering or even in discomfort.
You might think that he didn't have much of a life, but you would be wrong. Jo and Mark were dedicated to making sure that he had everything he needed and a quality of life as good as possible. They would take him often on outings, you could see that the stimulation that he got from these adventures was plenty for a dog of 17 years of age. More than happy to take a milk arrowroot from you whenever offered. We've seen physically healthy dogs with arguably less to live for than Rocky, after all if we can accept that a dog can make a huge positive difference in the life of someone with failing health, there's no reason we can't see that we could do the same for a dog.
Last night we got a message from Jo and Mark that Rocky had to be put to sleep, it's not a surprise as they had been expecting it for months now. Each visit to the vet carried the real possibility that it was going to be his last, they were living day to day, not sure which would be the day. With the onset of renal failure it looked like Rocky's time had come.
If there's one thing that just about every dog loves more than anything else, it's love and companionship. Rocky had plenty of that, I doubt that he ever wanted for the one thing that makes life worthwhile, no matter the circumstances that he was in.
Goodnight Rocky.