Didz's Sixteenth Summer

20/08/2025

Didz, my little wonder, my diamond dog, m'colleague, my wonderful border colleague, border wally, number 9, silly doodle diddles squiggles wobbledog didders dibbles dibblesworth dibs didzy carmichaels (I'll be adding all his nicknames as I go through the next few days!) went to the rainbow bridge today to meet all his friends.

I want to thank all of you for being so lovely and supportive. He went with a tummy full of cheeseburgers, gravy bones and crisps, and surrounded by a little party of us humans (parties were always his favourite!)

He loved his life and he knew how much people loved him. I love you, boy. Run free once again and give Floyd a nip from me, he will see you coming and sigh...

I love you so much my bestest lad. I'm gonna BITE YA.

💕 14th April 2008 - 20th August 2025 💕

20/08/2025

scrappy little weird pupple. 2009

20/08/2025

He's had a nice day, extra food, extra loves. He is grooming himself and commenced doing his evening rollies, but they're more careful now and he sometimes goes to do it and aborts on the way down.

It's extra tough for me to make the call because he's mentally still bright as a button - just now I picked up my phone and the light made him instantly look at me like WOTCHU DOIN? And just as I was typing to my sis telling her that he was struggling to walk, he hopped up no bother to go and get a drink.

He loves his life too much!

He's not vocalising any pain (and I don't want him to get to that point), and he's still getting around the garden, albeit wonkily, and snoofling about. He fidgets a lot when he's settling down. I know he's achy and weak.

But mentally, he still wants to be here.

Which is incredible when you consider that half his lifetime ago, he was still a Senior dog! I took him to the vet when he was 10 and the vet said "what ten is he...? ten months?" Funnily enough, thinking back, I think that might've been the amazing Dimitris, who is a lovely vet and knows Didz well now as an even older old man.

What a lovely long old age and retirement for him. Too quick for me. My body hurts all over from manhandling him (as well as everything else I manhandle) and the tension and the stress, and worrying about what he's up to when I can't see him.

For instance, I just heard the biggest racket - the rattling of one of the doors behind me - and I got up quick, thinking he was having a seizure or something. No, he's just merrily chomping on one of Winston's bones, right against the door!. FFS. Moments of contentment indeed.

19/08/2025

I can't sleep.
He can. A lot. Earlier he was so deeply asleep and cool to touch that I thought he'd gone, and I'm constantly wondering if that's what he wants. I ask him all the time: are you ready? His daily moments of joy are turning into contentment, but they're still there - lying in the sun, he still wants his food, he's still drinking, but everything else didz-like about him is slowly fading. I haven't seen him groom himself today, and none of his silly rollies. He still tries to follow me and get under my feet whenever I move, but he's wobbly - he isn't giving up yet, but I think we're headed that way. And now I'm crying. My soul dog.

08/08/2025

07/08/2025

17 years apart 🥰

07/08/2025

beach Bants. Never could say no to a party with his family ❤️

30/07/2025

NOSY.

30/07/2025

Another £150 and a big cry at the vets. Almost a whole year now since I made this page and thought I was going to say goodbye, and here he still is, still burning holes in my pockets 😂 it's a good job he's cute 💗

26/06/2025

greetings from me and this (still somehow fast enough to be blurry) tricolour strugglebus

We're struggling in all honesty... stairs and shiny floors now completely unmanageable. Our Vet assures me his pain is managed, but hygiene is becoming an issue. He's decided to start skipping breakfast and eat really late, and he's grazing instead of enthusiastically eating his 2 daily meals like he used to. Every day I'm feeling pressured to make a decision, and I still want HIM to make it and tell me. But he's gonna keep on keeping on, because he's a silly old bluey collie and he wants to work work work.
I know that I could pick any day now, and be satisfied we lived it all to the full, but every day I wake up and think about it and I settle on - not today. Not while he still sniffs and mooches about happily. Not while he still comes up for a cuddle when I'm lying on the sofa engrossed in Doctor Who marathons. Not while he still asks every single person he sees for some loves and hopes for a biscuit. Not while he's still under my feet when I'm in the kitchen. Not while he still does that little skip hop when I tease him, and his eyes do that cheeky twinkle.
Not today. (Not ever...)

19/04/2025

I think my time with this beautiful amazing lad is going to come to an end quite soon. His back legs aren't keeping up with his demand anymore and he's all front wheel drive now - but I wonder if we didn't have stairs or slippery floors, his decline wouldn't have been so noticeable??? He walks a lot better with his non-slippy socks on, and he's still so happy mooching around outside.
His next assessment with the vet is due on Wednesday.
We are using the HHHHHMM scale to measure his quality of life, and he's still scoring way above the threshold because he's still SO HAPPY.
There is blossom on his nose 🫶

12/04/2025

number 9 I woz ###