Basil, ?? - July 14, 2014
Jul. 14th, 2014 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lederhosenIt's not quite six months since we were a two-dog household, and now they're both gone. We took Basil to the vet just last Thursday and he was surprised by how well Basil was looking, but warned us that it probably wouldn't last.
Yesterday afternoon a charity collector rang the doorbell and Basil didn't charge downstairs to bark at him like he usually does. This morning he was standing by the bed looking unhappy, and I noticed his neck was swollen on one side. By this afternoon it had grown much bigger and he was having a lot of trouble breathing; it might have been operable, but the vet thought it was time to call it a day, and we agreed.
It felt odd, stroking him while he was sedated and afterwards; patting Basil while he was sleeping was always a Really Bad Idea, likely to get you bitten, but not this time.
He was so very different from Dog-Or. Dog-Or was an uncomplicated dog who loved everybody and assumed they loved him back (mostly correctly). Basil had a lot of defensive behaviours, he bit all of us at least once, and he was cautious about us - he would give my hand a very polite little lick when he was feeling friendly. When you called him, he'd stop to think about whether he really wanted to come. (Baths: no thank you.) But it was clear he liked being around us, and not just at mealtimes; when Rey was out he'd camp by the door waiting for her to come home.
I wish I knew where he came from before the Lost Dog's Home, whether there's somebody out there wondering whatever became of their little black-and-white borglie. We only got the last quarter of the story, but we did what we could with it.
Yesterday afternoon a charity collector rang the doorbell and Basil didn't charge downstairs to bark at him like he usually does. This morning he was standing by the bed looking unhappy, and I noticed his neck was swollen on one side. By this afternoon it had grown much bigger and he was having a lot of trouble breathing; it might have been operable, but the vet thought it was time to call it a day, and we agreed.
It felt odd, stroking him while he was sedated and afterwards; patting Basil while he was sleeping was always a Really Bad Idea, likely to get you bitten, but not this time.
He was so very different from Dog-Or. Dog-Or was an uncomplicated dog who loved everybody and assumed they loved him back (mostly correctly). Basil had a lot of defensive behaviours, he bit all of us at least once, and he was cautious about us - he would give my hand a very polite little lick when he was feeling friendly. When you called him, he'd stop to think about whether he really wanted to come. (Baths: no thank you.) But it was clear he liked being around us, and not just at mealtimes; when Rey was out he'd camp by the door waiting for her to come home.
I wish I knew where he came from before the Lost Dog's Home, whether there's somebody out there wondering whatever became of their little black-and-white borglie. We only got the last quarter of the story, but we did what we could with it.
