Thank you all so much for your lovely messages about my diet.  I’m afraid things have lapsed rather, partly because we’ve had a death in the family.

It was a fairly small death, given that it happened to a little red dog who’d ruled our family for eleven years.  But as I’m sure many of you know, a small death such as this can have a very big impact.

Lucy developed a liver condition in March and we were told that she had no functioning liver.  No one mentioned it to her, however, so although the weight fell off her and she was always ravenously hungry, she carried on being her bright, bossy self until just recently. 

I think the hardest part was that we had to decide the moment.  We weren’t told by the vet that it was the only thing we could do for her.  Eventually we did make the decision and on her last day Desmond took her for her favourite walk in the park.  The previous day she had to be carried home as she was too weak to walk.  On her last day she ran around and chased a squirrel. 

Of course we discussed cancelling the appointment, but we came to the conclusion that we didn’t want her to get worse.  Some days she was so weak she had to be carried.  She’d stopped being able to eat biscuits.  But while Desmond was on the phone to the vet and I was listening she hopped onto the sofa and ate the cheese from my salad.

I heard Monty Don said no relationship with an animal ends well but I hope we don’t dwell on Lucy’s end for too long.  She was such a strong character, she’s more than frail little thing we said goodbye to.