To all our loved pets, woof love

Our regular columnist Andrew Gale talks about the beauty of pets

MAN'S BEST MATES: So why do we have pets? They give us a lot of love, and teach us valuable lessons along the way. Picture: Andrew Gale

PETS have always been a big part of our family life.

Dogs and cats mostly. I've had a few fish too but you can hardly take them for a walk or play catch with them. I tend to class them more as living decorations, a step up from plants but hardly a faithful companion

I've been with my darling wife for 28 years and I can hardly think of a time where we didn't have at least one cat and one dog living under the roof with us.

We are presently on our third blue cattle dog (we always have one of them), but we've had a labrador, a mini foxie and we currently have something resembling a cross between a shaved rat and a fox there to keep the bluey company.

Our first cattle dog, was with Melinda and I through our early life. He was there when we married and there when we brought home our first four children.

He moved with us from one end of the state to the other when I was in the police. One day he just lay down in the backyard of the Yelarbon Police Station and passed from this world. It was a beautiful day. Our four kids (at that time) he loved dearly were playing around him noisily on the trampoline. He just lay in the shade and went to sleep.

I noticed he was still. He was an old dog by now, over 15. I sat and talked to him, patting his fur before I called the kids over and told them. They patted him and we cried and said goodbye before digging a hole in the hard and dry dirt.

Last time I was out that way the olive tree we planted as a grave marker was bearing fruit.

Our next bluey, despite all the love in the world and now seven kids to fret over him, developed a doggy disease at 11 or 12. It wasted his strength, took his eyesight and quality of life.

One day I found him whimpering on the veranda, stuck in the corner, fretting because he couldn't work out how to walk backwards. He deteriorated. The family sat down and we made the decision to put him down.

It was somewhat poignant at that time that my father was in a nursing home, spiralling downwards with dementia, towards a long and slow death.

The parallels with the dog's own descent was eerie - only the dog's suffering was ended quickly. Not over months including a terrible final week of suffering for those watching my strong, kind and proud father's breathing becoming shallower and shallower at an agonisingly slow pace.

Our current dog is another bluey. Male and de-sexed. Well-bred and well-meaning, but as mad as a kid after drinking a bottle of red cordial. He's coming good.

So why do we have pets?

They give us so much joy, loyalty and absolute un-wavering and sincere love, and we love them back.

Despite this devotion, they are only a part of our life for 12-15 years, maybe a bit more if it's a cat or a small dog, and then they are gone, leaving a hole in our hearts.

All of our kids have been born with a dog and a cat in the family unit, only to have it pass away whilst they are still children. Wouldn't it be better if we could have pets that live for 20 or 30 years?

That way the puppy or kitten that your child grows up with can pass away when they are older and better equipped to deal with the loss? Or would it be?

I think pets have a short lifespan for a purpose. They teach us about love, they teach us about responsibility and they also teach us about one of the hardest things, something we don't want face and deal with, death.

I was born of parents who were born in the war years of the 40s. Death was a big taboo growing up in the 60s and 70s in plenty of families including my own.

One day our dog Patchy died but rather than tell the us, the kids, we were spared the "suffering” and were told he had run away.

I waited for him to come home for two or three years.

Pets are important to my family and I. Dogs are fantastic protectors and judge of character too. Only a foolish thief would dare enter our yard or house uninvited. Friends and those with good intent are always welcomed with a big lick.

As well as that, deep down I'm thankful that they help us raise our kids to be realistic, resilient and able to deal with the inevitable, even if we don't want to talk about it.