A dog and unconditional love

3:03pm Tuesday 5th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

When my dog, Fee Bee died last March I lost not just a pet but a really good friend. She got sick and her death was made no easier by the fact that I had to make the decision to have her put to sleep. I’m told that ten and a half was a good age for a German Shepherd but as odd as it seems, in my heart I thought we would be together forever.

From the age of eight weeks when she wobbled into my home, we were virtually inseparably and we formed a very strong attachment. She was quite a snooty sort but she had the kindest, sweetest temperament and we had this bond that was quite interesting insofar as she would seem to know what I wanted.

For instance, I was trying unsuccessfully to pull a root up out of the ground and she pulled it up for me and placed it at my feet. If I was in a garden centre she would help me choose pots and on the beach find me amazing stones. I was once asked to select two crystals from a basket lot which were on the floor and before I had time to choose them, she picked two out of the basket for me. They were ones I would have chosen myself. Feebs could put people in their place in the nicest way and without being rough or using any aggression - she could balance a malteser on her nose and she could literally roll over and die for you with one of those last long breaths.

I could recount lots of stories of Feebs and me and although I know this was a very special relationship that probably only happens once in a lifetime, I do believe that the unconditional love an animal brings is unique in every way. An animal expects nothing - not even love - but it gives everything of itself.

Why is it then that so many people can’t appreciate this? when I recently visited the Hereford & Worcester Dog Rescue Centre and the German Shepherd Rescue Centre here in Herefordshire to write about their plight, the stories weren't anything like my own.

Some of them would break your heart.

I was asked if I would take that extra step at the German Shepherd Rescue centre and am the owner of a rescued nine year old called Santa. She is tiny, has no weight, no muscle mass and has been kept on the minimum of food so she never grew. She has been living with me for four weeks now and I’m having to socialise her, not with people but with things a dog naturally should have and do! I do believe she is developing a very little layer of fat, nothing like a roll but I can feel a slight cushioning before her bones now. I also have to remember not to try and move her by her collar as it scares her so much she cries frantically and cowers.

Santa has never had the lifestyle Feebs had but, you know what’s proving the unconditional love is that she gives, regardless of her situation, she lives to give.