In December last year, I started the day like normal, I got up and got ready for work. Then I said the last goodbye I would ever say to my two dachshunds, Finnley and Nelson.
They were our children, we took them on holidays with us and to pretty much any event we went to.
I finished work at 3pm that day and went to a friend’s place. I had a missed call from my partner and a text that said ‘you need to come home now’. It wasn’t normal for Dylan to text me like that, so I called him back and got the worst news I have ever received in my life.
Dylan told me that our dog, Finnley, was lying dead in our backyard and that the two big dogs that killed him were down next to our baby boy’s body.
The dogs belonged to our neighbour, and they had jumped over our six foot fence into our backyard.
At this point Dylan didn’t know where our other dog Nelson was, so he went straight to the neighbour’s house and asked him if he could look in their backyard for Nelson. But he still couldn’t find him.
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My brother picked me up from my friend’s house as I was devastated and too upset to drive. My brother and I looked around my suburb for Nelson, just in case he had gotten out. I contacted the local council, but they didn’t have any information. An hour passed and I went to each of our neighbours telling them about the situation and to keep an eye out for Nelson, and just as I’m walking down my driveway I hear my brother say, “I found Nelson, Dylan”.
I was so excited thinking he was OK, so I ran inside, only to hear Dylan say, “Aww poor Nelly”.
Nelson was hiding under wooden pallets we had, and was obviously hiding from the dogs. My brother told me not to come outside as Nelson was in a bad way and to get a towel so Dylan could pick him up.
Two minutes later Dylan runs in with Nelson and tells me to get in the car and we head to the vet.
Nelson’s whole insides were on the outside of his body, and he was alive, but hardly. All his blood was dry, I have no idea how he was still alive.
We went to the vet and they told us they weren’t sure if they could save the organs and that it would cost a minimum of $20,000. We both didn’t care about the money, but the vet made it clear there was no saving Nelson. So we made the heartbreaking decision to euthanise our baby, we said our goodbyes and gave him kisses and cuddles and told him to say goodbye to Finnley for us.
We got the boys cremated together, and it has been three months since the worst day of our lives.
I pray that nobody else has to go through this but sadly this happens quite frequently. That’s why I’m sharing my story, so that people make sure they have things in place so their dogs are safe. You never think this will happen to you, but when it does, all you feel is guilt.
Since that day, a generous Facebook group have raised $2,300 for us, which was so kind.
The day we lost our dogs was the worst day of my life.