I have written before about the mutually beneficial relationship between my ancient mother and her equally old dog.  Recently the 13 year old Labrador fell dramatically ill and despite her 91 years my mother spent two nights on the sofa with Jay - " I couldn't leave her crying alone," she insisted.  My mother feared the worst and even went so far as to put her gardender on standby to dig a grave down among the blackberries that Jay so loves to scoff.  Blood tests revealed a liver problem but incredibly, thanks to medication, Jay has made a full recovery and fingers crossed, the two of them will be together for a while longer.  But the moral of this story is to be prepared...  None of us likes to think about the demise of our beloved dogs but I believe it lessens some of the heartache if you know in advance exactly what you are going to do.  Basically, there are three choices: to leave the body at the vet for disposal, cremation or burial.  For those with very small or no gardens, then there is only a choice of the first two - but deciding in advance ensures that there are no regrets later about the decision taken...

On a jollier note ... there are has been much in the media lately about slop buckets or caddies.  Maybe there is something wrong with us but there are no scraps in our house: between humans, dogs and chickens we eat EVERYTHING!