The weekend gone has been a difficult one for me and the family. On Monday, which was a public holiday here in QLD, we had to say goodbye to our first baby, Bentley, and it came unexpectedly and it was somewhat gut wrenching. It’s taken me two days to write this post because I’ve been so upset we lost a significant part of our family.
The long weekend is a special weekend for Jacob and I, because it was the weekend we chose to get married on 12 years ago. Our anniversary was on Sunday, but as luck would have it, I came down with a nasty tummy bug. Esther had it the week before for literally a week. I had begun to think she had developed a food allergy – like gluten intolerance. But no, it was a nasty tummy bug. It could have been another strain of gastro and it knocked me out all weekend. Jacob had to take over looking after the girls and I got little sleep as my tummy constantly churned and I couldn’t keep much down. It was awful.
But since having kids, we’ve always gone with the flow when celebrating our anniversary and we can always celebrate it another weekend.
Sadly, the unexpected hit us again on Monday, when we discovered our Bentley, had a bleeding nose that wouldn’t stop bleeding.
His nose had bled on Sunday. We found a pool of blood on the floor, but the flow had stopped and we didn’t think too much about it. Hoping he would be ok till Tuesday, when I could take him to a vet to get checked out.
Bentley woke up on Monday and his nose constantly dripped and oozed blood all over our house. When he sneezed, which was constantly because of the stream of blood, blood was spread everywhere on the floor, cupboards, walls – if you can imagine Matt and Kim’s crime scene room from The Block Skyhigh, that’s what our house looked like – but with blood. Even the front of his legs were stained with blood. It was a nasty scene, and one the girls witnessed. Bentley seemed happy in himself, but we knew we had to get him to a vet.
So I rang an emergency vet and they said to bring him down straight away. I had hoped he would have been fixed up and sent home that night. But it wasn’t to be.
We had to make the gut-wrenching decision at 9:30pm on Monday night whether to put him down after already agreeing to doing all that could be done to determine the cause. It was an expensive exercise. The blood flow couldn’t be stopped (which led the vets to believe he had an inoperable tumour that caused the constant blood through his nose) So at around 10pm, Jacob held Bentley as he was put to sleep and our home hasn’t been the same since.
When Jacob came home, we bawled in bed, remembering our gorgeous doggy who we bought way before we had kids, and has been part of the landscape of our family. He was a wonderful dog and to be honest I can’t write anymore without streams of tears running down my face.
We know it was the right decision, but it came totally unexpectedly and offset a crappy weekend which was supposed to be a celebration.
Bentley is everywhere in our house and his absence is very much missed. I’ve noticed how much dirtier my floors are because of the sheer amount of food and crumbs left on the floor from the girls. No wonder the pup was overweight. He was the best robovac a girl could ask for!
There’s no one to greet us at the garage door when we come home.
And little things like checking his water bowls, putting food away from the benches so he won’t steal it when I head out, or putting the cushions away so he won’t take them to make a cushion oasis at his mat, are all things I miss, or I keep doing out of habit.
He was a wonderful dog to our girls. Very protective but also very friendly.
When we’ve had church groups or friends over, Bentley has been a part of our welcome at the front door. He’s sometimes, unfortunately gassed them too with his farts. We don’t miss those!
But our first baby is in a better place now and as much as we wish he was still here with us, we know we made the right decision.
Every time I tell someone about our Bentley, I can’t help but burst into tears. Our pets really do become a much loved part of the family.
The girls have taken the loss really well. They’ve been very matter of fact about what has happened. Bentley died like Grandma Jones. They’ve taken it well, but they have certainly noticed his absence as Esther said yesterday, our house doesn’t feel the same without Bentley. And it doesn’t.
I can take comfort knowing he had a great life, was treated like a king and was well loved by our family.
RIP Bentley.
