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Bowwout - 10th Anniversary!
How fast a decade has flown since I set up Bowwout, our At Home Pet Euthanasia Service.  Back in 2014, after talking to many owners, I decided to provide this service where pets could pass away peacefully at home at their most content, surrounded by the people they love, at the end of their lives.
This photo of Pi was taken at the start of Bowwout. My pets have been constant companions on my adventures in life, whether joyful or painful. Always there, always loving. And their loss devastating. I feel your pain, and hopefully help to lighten it, as the curtains close on your pet's life.
Over the ten years I've helped put to sleep many beloved pets, been welcomed in many homes, and met many kind and loving people. Several times I've been honoured by being asked back by owners months or years later to put down another pet. To all of you who sought my help I'd like to say "Thank you," - for your trust in Bowwout's service, your cards and testimonials, and most important, your compassion for your pets.

A decade later, this is my first blog. In future blogs I hope to share some insights into the end of life experience for owners, pets and vets. We are all part of the natural circle of life and death.  Sadly for us, the human circle is intersected by smaller circles - those of our pets. So we are bound to feel  the pain of loss several times during our lives. On the other hand we can feel happy that we helped our pets live a good life, did our duty towards them with sustenance and sanctuary, and loved them.  If we were lucky, we were able to help them drift away when their lives became just too difficut. The love we felt for them is beyond words. The love they gave to us beyond comprehension.
Buddy
Buddy and his owner work together morning to night.  Mick helps us out fencing, digs holes for my trees and fills them with top soil and horse manure. It gives the trees some chance in this terrible heavy marl-y soil. He does whatever other mad thing (in his opinion, I can see) I ask him - fits me in between his real work. Buddy sits on the tractor or digger with him, a bowl of quivering water in the footwell. He used to walk beside them but is getting older now and prefers a roof and company. The first time she saw him in her garden my German Shepherd, Kochi, stood over him, snarling. Buddy sniffed at the ground and walked under her, to emerge from between her hind legs. He sat down to scratch. Her snarls at an empty space dwindled and she looked around at him, ears lowered. 
Buddy's been the boss ever since. I tell his owner he has to lose weight - he laughs and invites me to visit his house and tell the family. But I notice that Buddy is looking slimmer. And has more energy. He doesn't like Mick going for his dialysis several times a week, but at least he's trained the taxi driver to give him a treat when he picks Mick up. A silver lining to the cloud, in his opinion.
Goodbye Anam Cara
Anam Cara came to our farm from across the mountain fifteen years ago, shortly before this photo was taken.    He lived with us for years until, just before Covid, we moved to a house close to a main road. The new owners of the farm adopted him.. Everyone was horrified at our 'abandoning' him except Anam Cara, who blossomed in his new freedom without our dogs to annoy him, and in the devotion  of his new owners. 
Redently the present owners called me to look at him. He was losing both hair and weight. We carried out tests and started him on treatment. The hair grew back, the weight stopped dropping, and he was happy. Until last week, when he didn't come in for his breakfast. 
They found his body lying at the bottom of the drive among crispy  autumn leaves. Whoever had hit him had been kind enough move it in and cover him with a little cloth. Perhaps it was a comfort to know that he wouldn't have to go through any suffering in the future, and that we'd never have to make the decision that so many owners have to face, but we cried many tears over the phone. Puss was a last link, the end of an era, and a beautiful, gentle character. Goodbye, my friend.
 
(If you'd like to read any more about Anam Cara, or dip into Liz's light hearted blogs on country and vet living, please visit vetlizireland.ie) 

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