23/08/2024
Merlin Mather
24th June 2010 - 23rd August 2024
Tonight our house is feeling emptier, feeling less like a home. After deteriorating over the last few days, we made the very difficult decision that it was time to say goodbye to our Merlin.
He was our first dog and from the minute we saw him being brought out of the barn, he had me wrapped right around that not-so-little paw of his. Because it’s true, that boy, however old he was when we first clapped eyes on him, he was never small. Not in stature and sure as hell not in personality.
Merlin’s had his issues, with his past a mystery to all of us, we did our best to give him the life he deserved and I like to think that with a lot of hard work, love and determination, we achieved that and he’s had a life full of (mis)adventure, naughtiness, races, snuggles, nose kisses, squeaky tennis balls, roast dinners and an obscene amount of things that really should not be eaten by a dog.
Despite his past, he was the most loving, cheeky, loyal and protective big bear of a dog, and to anyone that knew him, he rather quickly earned the title of a ‘gentle giant’. Unless of course you were any of my exes.
Last night we all sat together for the last time as a family, with Merlin in his chosen spot with us both in the kitchen. We ordered him his own Chinese takeaway and between myself and my dad taking shifts, he was never alone. Especially when the time came.
He was completely and irrevocably Merlin right up to the very end, and that’s something I will always be grateful for. That despite his past; he’d never experience suffering again in this lifetime, or his next. The last thing he knew of the world was drifting off to sleep in our arms in our kitchen after a few slices of his favourite cheese.
Sleep tight Mer-Mer, we have loved you from the day we met you, for all of your life and will carry that love with us until the end of ours.
