Alfie’s ready to come home…

That was the call we’ve just had from the vets. A lovely and quite melancholy call to be honest, just as if he’s had a minor procedure and he has awoken and is now ready to come home.

Reality is a little more stark. We are now heading down to collect our little fellah after he has been cremated.

Our beautiful lad has come home

We didn’t know what to expect to be honest, do we take a bag? Is he in a polythene bag? My wife was upset as she’d taken the call as I had been on nights and was in bed. I had this overwhelming feeling yesterday that he’d be coming home today, so in a way when I awoke I wasn’t surprised, strange isn’t it?

We needn’t have fretted, it was all so professional. He’s in a lovely woodland scene tube, we didn’t want a sealed casket as we wanted his ashes to go with ours in the end, please don’t judge us, it’s what we want and you will never understand just what this little character meant to us.

We also have a certificate of individual cremation, with lovely words, we have a lovely little picture frame memento with his paw print, we now have to pick a picture from the thousands we have of him, no easy task and I suspect we will have words about this. The vets have taken a cutting of his fur and put it in a small phial, lovely touch. We have two beautiful cards with his paw print on, and I will be using one of these to get a permanent tattoo on my arm with his pet name as he was known to many in the family- “Alfie Moon”.

The feeling in the house at the moment is nice, all the doubt we had has now gone, and we are so happy with the professional service we have experienced.

We can now move on to the healing stage, as he is now home. It’s so weird that the immense feeling of grief has lifted and a modicum of calmness and happiness has returned, it needed to as it had been missing for some time now.

Our lad is home, where he deserves to be. And he will be with us forever more.

Welcome home son ❤️

A little break away part three

Our last day today was a hot one. Here in sunny Broadstairs it hit a balmy 28 degrees so I suspect summer has now officially been and gone.

We have a family wedding up north in about seven weeks and I’ve been hanging around in getting a new suit, as the only one I seem to have that fits now is the one used for funerals. Probably not good to turn up at a celebration wearing that I guess. No I’ve been good and got myself a nice new three piece one that should do the job, I’m very happy with it and the wife has also given her seal of approval so I suspect for once, the boys done good!

Whilst we were shopping we came across this strange sign. I know Apple have brought out the iPhone, iPad, iWatch etc I’m just curious to know what this is:

Icrack…what’s that then?

I’m wondering, does it tell the time or stream the internet? The mind boggles. Do I need one or shall I stick with what I have….oooerrr missus.

That aside we’ve had a lovely day just walking around the seafront people watching. Tonight we have been out to celebrate a 50th Birthday at Sittingborne dog track, otherwise known as Central Park stadium.

12 races, a lovely dinner and some alcohol free drinks as yours truly was driving. Spent a little, lost a little, didn’t come out any better off. Gambling is a mugs game, thank god I don’t do it that often. I don’t really know what I’m doing, maybe that’s the problem. Anyway it was fun and good to meet up with distant family.

So I sit here perusing the past week and what a fantastic time we’ve had. The driving is by far the worst part and by tomorrow afternoon I will have racked up almost 800 miles, and on Uk roads that isn’t fun. However we’ve made memories, spent time with the family and seen friends we have not seen in a while. So the inconvenience of driving pales into insignificance considering what we have done.

I’m looking forward to the next get together in about 7 weeks from now. I’m just not looking forward to the last leg of driving from Kent to the East Midlands tomorrow.

But I’m sure it will all be worth it.

A little break away Part two..

We’ve finished our small break away in the Devon countryside and taken a long and protracted drive across the south of England to the garden of England. Kent.

Devon to Kent

We are here to attend a surprise 50th birthday celebration, and thank god we are not doing anything tonight as I’m absolutely cream crackered (Slang for Knackered). Britains highways are crumbling away and to be honest they are not fit for purpose. An allegedly “fast route” of 250 miles should have taken 4hrs and 55 mins, so we finally arrived at our destination 7hrs and 30 mins later. Awful, and a bloody embarrassment to this island as are all forms of transport we operate in this country. It really is a pathetic state of affairs.

Anyway that aside the last couple of days in Devon were beautiful. I saved a baby rabbit from the attention of a wild cat, our beautiful best friend (our dog Alf) even though extremely ill loved the time with his mate Herbie, they played together and brought smiles to our faces, tears to our eyes and love to our hearts, as anyone who knows Alf, knows this is not expected with his illness, it was lovely to see the old Alf. if only temporarily. He’s a beautiful soul, not an angry bone in his body. Just a gorgeous little dog.

Baby Rabbit

We’ve headed off to Kent now whilst Alf has headed back to the East Midlands in the company of my Brother and Sister in law who know how to look after him and how to treat his illness. We will be back with him in a couple of days.

Alf and Herbie.

Now in Kent we’ve booked in at our hotel that is a lot less luxurious than the farmhouse in Devon, but comfortable all the same. A quick visit to my Sisters for a Coffee and whilst sitting in her back garden we get dive bombed by a juvenile Seagull on its first flight. But he seems unable to get airborne so his parents start to dive bomb us in the garden, protecting their young I suspect.

Baby Seagull

So what with all the chaos that has prevailed, with all the noise and aerial activity we have decided to retreat indoors to leave them to it. Hopefully they’ll be able to get junior airborne once again.

Back to the hotel as tiredness has silenced me and I need some rest. Tomorrow we are off to the dog racing in Sittingbourne for a meal and some light entertainment. Hopefully there will be no further animal shenanigans.

Peace to you all.

A little break away

Not been answering the standard sometimes mind numbing questions that WP throws out on a daily basis as I’m currently enjoying some time away in and around the coast of Devon. Family time, good food and drink and company and a few nice little walks away from it all on my own some.

Beer – Seaton – Beer. Lovely walk
A little east Devon walk

I’ve been swimming and taken loads of photos, here are a selection below.

We’ve brought our dog Alf with us as it’s probably the last holiday he’ll have with us due to his illness. He’s thoroughly enjoying it and tiring him self out constantly. It’s lovely and we are all enjoying our time with him. Time is precious.

I’ll return to normal operation when we get back if I can be arsed. Having too much of a good time.

Have a pleasant day everyone.