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Joey the Labrador: a life well lived
Joey was supposed to have been a cat.
We often told him that, through the 13 years of his life, and he regarded us with tolerance, as if he was hearing a joke he knew well, just waiting for the punchline. That was a regular expression of Joey’s. He was a happy dog, with a happy expression, and a permanently wagging tail. In fact, Joey didn’t just wag his tail, he wagged the entire back end of his body. Joey was joyous and brought joy to everyone around him.
The cat was called Lucky. He arrived late one afternoon, courtesy of our new German au pair. She was passionate about animals, and arrived back after a cycle ride with tears in her eyes about an abandoned kitten she had seen by the roadside. Her description was painful and I tried very hard to resist, but found myself driving out with her to rescue a bedraggled and skinny creature with weeping eyes. Lucky was so light I could barely feel him and I wasn’t hopeful, but the vet assured me that food, care and antibiotics would probably do the trick.
The children, aged 8 and 6, were hugely excited and our intention of taking Lucky to the MSPCA for rehoming quickly faded. Toby, our two year old black Labrador was relaxed about the new arrival and it seemed that Lucky had found his forever home for a few days until Richard went down one morning and found that he hadn’t been strong…
