Losing a pet is tough. In the early hours of 1st November I was reminded how much so, when my lovely Inca passed away in her sleep.
She was 14 and a half years old which truly is a fantastic age for a Labrador. She lived a great life right up to the very end. I knew it was going to happen and yet still felt so unprepared. There's something unique about pet loss - we all know it will happen one day, yet it still surprises us when it does.
Grief is an empty feeling, and our homes can feel even emptier with the absence of tiny paws pitter pattering up and down. However I truly believe we carry them with us wherever we go: they are in the places they loved and the things they loved to do. They are in the lessons they taught us and the times they got us through. They live on in our memories.
I know that Inca taught me a lot about working a Labrador in the field. She was a natural game finder with an amazing nose. She was one of those dogs you didn't really need to train, you just got her out of the car and she cracked on with the job at hand.
That being said, I know she was a cheeky teenager at one point and had her moments of mischief. I was a teenager at the same time, so I probably didn't help much!
A good friend pointed out to me that Inca was with me for over half of my lifetime. How lucky am I to have friends so observant and a dog so long. Even still, eternity with her would never really have been enough.
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