It has been hard these last few days without our beloved Bruno. He had not been well, and then one of his leg joints swelled and started being painful for him when he put any pressure on it. Our beautiful vet Emanuel, decided it was either an abcess or a tumour. She gave him some acupunture to help wth pain and some manipulation on his spine to help release the pressure that was building up due to excessive pressure put on joints and discs . We also gave him some antibiotics to see if it made any difference to what might have been an abcess - this was done last Wednesday. Due to the stairs we have here and the fact that Bruno couldn't walk, we took to keeping him in the hall at night and carrying him in and out of the front door.
On Friday night about 9pm we suddenly heard what I thought was screaming and looked around for our son Max as I thought he must have fallen downstairs or something similar and then realised it was Bruno. Alistair dashed to him, and we think that he must have tried to put weight on his leg and the bone snapped. Cancer .
Max and I sat with him once we had made him comfortable and had him lying down, we held his head and soothed him whilst Alistair rang for the vet, Emanuel didn't have the necessary medication but thankfully rang around and managed to find a friend of hers that was not too far from us dealing with an emergency and could be with us in 15 min. Alistair met him at the end of our track and showed him the way to our house. I suppose it must have been about 10 pm by then.
We had no choice but to sedate Bruno and then the vet gave the final injection. A kind man who didn't speak any English and coped with our limited Spanish. He wiped tears from his eyes with his shoulder as he administered it and we sat in silence for many minutes after Bruno's heart stopped. Just spending time with this huge hearted dog who had loved us as much as we loved him.
Dylan our westie who has been with Bruno for 11 years slept on my bed that night. Lost and not knowing where his big friend had gone, but the way he had stared at Bruno while we were holding him made it clear to me that he knew something serious was happening.
The next day, it took Alistair and Max most of the day to dig a grave and later in the afternoon we buried Bruno with some words that Max had written and read and then laid on top of Bruno. I have kept his collar so we can always feel his energy.
I hope he stays nearby and doesn't leave us altogether, Thank you Bruno for being you.x