Archibald Simons 10/11/08 – 26/1/12

Archie passed away on what is now known as the worst Australia day ever. He was only three.

His passing was sudden and unexpected. I was holding off his 100th post because it was Puppy Day on the 21st but on Friday night he seemed to have a bad tummy ache, Archie did sometimes get tummy aches, and the next morning he was still bad so I thought I’d put off the post till he got better so it wasn’t a ‘he’s really sick’ post but a happier ‘he’s better now!’ post. He got worse until he couldn’t use his back legs, we didn’t know what was happening.

Mum called the vet when she, dad & Vickie came home from the city that night. He said it sounded like a slip-disc and we all breathed a sigh of relief (Amy and I thought he was going to die any second). He was in pain sometimes then seemed to settle.

I was happy (after being dismayed) he was at the vet where they were taking care of him. Still worried, I got scared every day we rung the vet. He was getting better, raising his head. Then we were told he had some internal bleeding and the next day he died. What exactly killed him, I don’t know, but he went peacefully, he was sitting there, started to lower his head then lay and passed away. We were all thrown into grief and I couldn’t believe it.

It’s started sinking in now but sorrow still clings to the household and will for some time. I miss him terribly and wish he was here.

But I don’t want to leave what has turned out to be a great collection of memories like this. Archie’s memory will not always be cloaked in grief so neither should this blog. I’m so happy we have these memories and that we got to have him at all because he was perfect. There are a few memories to add to complete this collection; over the next week or month we will share them here.

It was hard to tell this news, so the posts will happen as we feel up to doing them.