I won’t lie to you I’m sobbing so hard just now so I apologise if I ramble or this ends up making very little sense.

We’ve just had to make the hardest decision of our entire adult lives and one I never ever want to have to make again.

We’ve just had to say our final goodbyes to Barney, our much-loved Border Collie. He was almost 15 years old and came into our lives by chance a week before Christmas way back in 2003 when he was 6 months old.

Very sadly old age caught up with him as it does us all in the end. His body just couldn’t cope anymore and his legs failed, a mind of a puppy but the body of an old man who’s so very worn out.

He did however have the best life and had given us far more years than we’d expected.

Barney bounded into our lives by complete accident, he was abandoned as a young puppy. Left tied to a bus stop a week before Christmas. Paul happened to be on the phone to the council for one of his jobs when Barney was found, the office joked with Paul saying “you love dogs, do you want this one?” And the rest was history. Without a second thought, or waiting for a yes from me he agreed and Barney was with us in time for Christmas.

Our lives were never the same again. Lie-in’s on the weekend with a puppy…..well he was house trained but he did want me up before the crack of dawn still. Mornings became my job while late night walks were Paul’s (it worked well, Paul doesn’t do mornings well and I don’t do late night’s).

Holiday’s once saw us jetting off to OZ and Rome now saw us hiking in the Lake District with Barney leading the way and never tiring – even on the day when he’d had his usual morning walk while on that holiday then we hiked and got lost adding miles and miles to our journey, making it to around 11 miles in the end, and while I was certainly ready to crash and not move again for a week Barney still insisted on his evening walk.

He was always a little crazy too and had a thing for chasing cats, birds, ducks and even geese which often got him into trouble, including one time he fell into a pond while trying to chase the geese and Paul had no towel in the back of the car for him.

He used to always go into work with Paul too and everyone in town knew him, he certainly had a fan club where ever he went. He had all the cafe owners on side too and they would all dash out to give him a sausage or some ham/cheese.

All the kids around here adored him, so much so that in the summer holidays the local kids came to knock for Barney to see if he could go out to play ball with them!

He was my comfort when I experienced my 3 miscarriages before Emmy was born and the 2 before I had Harry. He would cuddle up to me putting his head on my tummy, licking my hand (or arm when I felt like a human pin cushion due to so many tests).

He was amazing with the children, sleeping by Emmy’s cot when she was young and guarding them all the time. He could let them cuddle him all the time and instinctively knew when to move out the way fast when they were riding bikes in the house.

He would always sleep under my side of the bed and was as terrified of thunder as I was. We would both bound up the stairs and under the covers.

He went on our caravan holidays with us , we did try him in a tent but it was rather disastrous and only in Easter holidays just gone did he go with us to the Cotswolds.

He was our best friend and he will never be forgotten.

Goodnight baby boy. Sleep well Barney xx