Goodbye Simon :(

Today we had to let go of our sweet, sweet Simon. The sweetest, friendliest dog we ever had. He was with us for more than 15 years, he came when he already was an adult, and it was instant love. He was always cheerful, sweet and gentle to both people and all the other doggies we have and had throughout the years. We will miss him terribly.

For the past 2 months he has been having seizures from time to time, but the past 2 days he had 5 and was clearly suffering. He had already been on Rimadyl for the past 15 months to manage arthritis. It pained both him and us to keep him around so we had to put him to sleep today to let him go peacefully, he now is resting between trees, flowers and butterflies in the mountain close to our home next to more fur babies we lost in the past. Even with the amount of dogs we have they all have their own place in our hearts, Simon's place is big and impossible to fill. Words can not describe how special he was and how much we love him, our home is not the same without him :(

Spring Cleaning

Until last year almost all our doggies would be brought to the vet twice a year for a trim. It was always quite the hassle with making an appointment bringing them to town one by one etc, not to mention that it is also a lot of costs, but here necessary due to the extreme heat but also as it is impossible to brush 13 dogs, we wash them very often, but brushing them all would be a full time job!

Anyway by the end of last year we finally bought our own trimmer, and it actually is much faster then bringing them to the vet. Since a few days we have Spring so in the sun the kids get their beauty treatment, and I haven't heard them complain, look at Simon very smug :)

While the doggies have their Spring cleaning, the garden however has become a bit hairy as some escape the broom with a little breeze.

Introducing: Simon

Simon is with us since 9 January 2004. This one had belonged apparently to an english woman who couldn't take him back to England doe to the strict quarantaine rules, but paid a turkish family to take care of him. Alas, they throwed him out first thing.
Again, a neighbour begged me to take him. I was reluctant to take in a big male dog, it can be tricky in such a big group, but agreed to keep him for a week till she found an other home for him. With Estella it was love at first sight, 'this is a keeper', she said, and that was good, because we never heard again from the concerned neighbour.

The integration in the pack was painless. Simon is the most friendly, patient and good humoured dog that you can imagine. He loves everybody. And is a big lover boy as well, cronically in love with all the girls in the family.
He always has a big grin on his face, is full of antics, a total clown. Also he talks. He imitates the cadence of human speech and indicates very clearly what he wants.
For years, he jumped our wall and roamed free the neighborhood, everybody liked him. Or not everybody, because two years ago somebody poisoned him. He was very, very ill, the vet came twice a day to see to him. He pulled through, but we made the wall even higher and he can not go out alone anymore. He looks lovingly to the wall and remembers the good times...