In honour of our dear Hero

Back in August we welcomed the wonderful Hero to the Twilight fold, a birthday present for our dear friend, supporter and all-round handyman Spencer. This dear ten-year-old hound had been abandoned at a refuge, and came with the grimmest of ears, a grim set of lungs and a massive eleven kilos under weight. Hero settled down straight away to Twilight life, and we began the task of building up his strength, with three lovely meals a day, including some yummy salmon, chicken and cheese to tempt his appetite. By the end of September he had put on nearly two kilos.

Hero loved his food and was often to be fund supervising breakfast and dinner preparations. In fact, he loved food so much that one day, when Leeanne was distracted by the door bell, the crafty monkey stole all the Dentastix that were being sorted for tea. We were more worried than Hero about the consequences of eating 126 treats at one sitting, but he suffered no ill effects and went on to demand more the next day! With his big smile and friendly demeanour Hero made lots of pudding friends, and was often to be found snuggled up on the sofa with another dog.

Sadly, after just three short months with at Twilight one morning we discovered a huge haematoma on his side. He was whisked off to the vets, and we waited a few days to see if it would subside, but clearly there was internal bleeding too. It was back to the vets again with dearest Hero. The internal bleed was clearly continuing. It was larger, heavier, and Hero was growing paler around the eyes and gums. We had no choice but to do some intervention.

The vets spent time and pondered. They decided to start at the bottom, drain the blood and see what they met as they got higher. Sadly, they hit a tumour embedded into his ribs. They would have to cut more away than they could repair. Leeanne kissed our boy one last time. How sad. He had only been with us months. But it underlines what could have happened at the back of a refuge kennel. It was all so quick. He could have died a very lonely painful death. The morale from Hero … let’s get those oldies out of the shelters and loved, even for a few months. Thank you Les Amis for entrusting the special lad to us. Sorry Spencer you birthday gift didn’t live for longer. Hero, we will forever remember you, for your love of dentasticks, those long legs that reached places only humans should go, and for you … your character, your love. Be free now my man, nothing can hold you back now.

Hero’s legacy

 If you follow our Facebook fundraising pages, you’ll have noticed that since April the talented fibre artist Julie Pavitt Robinson has offered us special mini me puds to auction and they have been an incredible success. Thank you, Julie! Well, Julie finished a very special piece the day our very special Hero left to go over the Bridge. His memory and our wonderful supporters’ love of him is still shining through. So, with a heavy heart but also a happy heart of his special memory we offered our supporters the chance to bid for this special piece in memory of Hero whom so many of fell in love with. His legacy and the funds raised will go towards the next pud in need. Our highest bidder kindly donated Hero’s model to go to Twilight where he will take pride of place and always be remembered. Dearest Hero, he always brought a smile every day or a tug at the heart strings – we’ll never forget you Hero ❤