Farewell to our Bertie Boo

This is the blog post I really didn't want to write, hence the lack of posts over the last two weeks, but it is time to share.

Last Saturday we said goodbye to our gorgeous Bertie - for those of you who may not have read any other posts, Bertie was our beautiful Springer Spaniel who was twelve and a half.  This post is to tell you about an amazing little dog and to say farewell.

Bertie came into our lives in January 2004 when he became Ken's MOD Police search dog - and then became part of our family.

I'd never had a dog before so was a little bit nervous when Ken brought him home, and lets just say considering our cats are confined to the flat they managed to hide for 24 hours.  I needn't have had any concerns, as Bertie turned out to be a gentle soul that could make anyone fall in love with dogs.  He never once annoyed the cats, even though they occasionally boxed him on the nose to remind him that they were in charge.

Bertie was a great work colleague to my beloved, working as an explosives sniffer dog until he was nine years old.  He then retired and became our dog officially, which was a very happy day.  We've been on lots of holidays as a threesome and Bertie got to swim in lots of different areas of the UK.

Cornwall

Whitstable

Yorkshire

He was a lovely cuddly dog and such an important part of the last 10 years of our lives so I wanted to share a few of our favourite shots of Bertie Boo.

Eating a pigs ear which was one of his favourite treats

Our lovely vet Reena came to the flat last Saturday to help Bertie with the assistance of nurse Anna - there wasn't a dry eye in the room as he left us.  Ken stroked him whilst I held his paw - it was as lovely as the death of a loved one could be.

We miss him dreadfully and will for a very long time - the flat feels very empty and the cats aren't quite sure what's going on.

So farewell our Bertie Boo - we love you and we will miss you always.

Pamela & Ken

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