It’s exciting, as a breeder, to see a healthy, happy puppy go off to start a new life with new owners, just as happy and excited with their newbuddy. It’s wonderful when those owners share with you pictures and stories of the pup as it grows to maturity, on into the prime of life and later a dignified old age. And it’s always sad when they contact you to say their beloved friend has passed on, a dog’s life simply too short.
But sometimes circumstances bring the dog back to you in their old age, full circle in that too-short life, to where they were born and were first loved. And I firmly believe that it is a breeder’s responsibility to take them in and care for them: breeding dogs is a hobby in which the ‘raw material’ is living, sentient beings. I am responsible for their existence, and I believe there is no time limit on that responsibility.
So Wally and Kate have come back home. The circumstances were nearly identical: elderly owners who faced an unexpected health crisis, went into hospital and could not go back home. No one wanted the much-loved canine companion. And so they were welcomed home here.
Kate has been with us nearly five years, Wally less than five weeks. They are almost 14 years now, a good age for a dog, and I know they don’t have much time left. Both have serious health issues, both sleep much of the time, but occasionally they will literally bounce through the house or out on our snowy walks with full-on Cardigan joy. I think they know that life is too short.
And I will miss them.
Wally is Aberwyvern Party at the Palace, Kate is Aberwyvern Jubilee Fireworks, born 26 May 2002, by Ch. Aberwyvern Llanelidon out of Bluetrix Billie Holiday Blues.
Marilyn Boissenneault Aberwyvern Kennels