Once in a while in life most of us are fortunate to have angels crossing our paths! A good few of mine have been four legged and Badger is one of them... and I’ve been blessed to have him with me on my path for a decade! Badger had two angels and then a third in 2000:

Reading the Echo as I do every week an ad caught my eye in 2000 about “an old boy left to die, blind”. Well I wasn’t going to leave him any further. Post phoning Marilyn I set off to Tokai, to meet Badger’s rescuers, Mr & Mrs Berry - what a wonderful couple, with a wonderful home and an equally wonderful family of dogs, of which Badger was happily literally bumping into all of them...Badger was largely blind.

He’s over the years also become largely deaf. But the spirit that was evident that day in Mr & Mrs Berry was echoed in their dogs, none more than ‘old’ (as we thought - perhaps about 8 years old) Badger, as they’d named him, found on Baden Powell Drive in a terrible state.

We agreed to have a rendezvous with my family of dogs in what was the Silvermine forest - Badger on his little harness, wagging his tail and welcoming all the interested big wet noses from my Pointers. We walked a little and happy that all was OK, Badger came home with us.

He’s outlived all four of my Pointers and Mr Berry, who sadly passed away this year. So this is a tribute from Badger and I to his rescuers, Mr & Mrs Berry - without you, as his angels on his path that day, he wouldn’t have been able to have been my angel for the wonderful decade we’ve spent together.

At 16-18 years old (we’ll never know exactly) I’m grateful for every extra day I have with him.

Thank you Rosemary and Hugh Berry.
Thank you Marilyn.

Karin Watling and Badger

 

When I wrote the article for the TEARS newsletter recently, about Badger and Mr and Mrs Berry, his rescuers, I of course didn’t know that Badger was about to become an angel himself.

He was a little off colour last week but last Friday he didn’t seem himself at all – after a vet’s visit and some superficial treatment whilst waiting for a scanning appointment at Cape Animal Medical Centre, he deteriorated so on Monday I took him to Rosemary Dallas at Alphen Vet sooner than my original scanning appointment. Rosemary was wonderful, both with Badger and with me and she was an extremely impressive veterinary counsel.

Post twice scanning over two days and results from a blood test it was evident that Badger’s liver was not in good shape at all – by that stage Badger did not want to eat – he’d always had such a healthy appetite for food, as well as for life. It was evident that Badger in this short time had become extremely unwell so whilst heartbreaking to lose him from my life it was not difficult to agree with Rosemary’s recommendation that we prevent him from further deterioration by letting him go to a more peaceful place.

I knew that Badger would instantly sprout wings and make his way up to the ranks of Angel. I knew he’d join Hugh Berry. He’s left a huge void in my life and the Watling canine family – we loved and respected our senior citizen so much. But we know he’s there for us as our Angel, just as Rosemary and Hugh, then Marilyn, were there for him all those years ago.

Karin Watling