Gentle giant enriched all our lives

I LOST my precious Travis back in June from kidney failure. We had him just short of 10 years and think he may have been a Christmas puppy that grew up too fast.

He came to us when a friend arrived from Dublin and helped gardai, who had stopped traffic at Kilmacanogue, to catch this stray dog.

Our friend, who is also a dog lover, caught Travis and the gardai asked him to hold on to him, until they found his owner. Luckily for us, however, no owner was found and as our friend already had four dogs, he asked if we would have him, and of course we obliged.

I had previously lost my beautiful greyhound called Fred to lung cancer and we were ready for love again.

My son and I lavished love on Travis, as did the whole family — he was a beauty. The vet called him handsome and over the years, Travis came to know everything about us.

He was a family member, a gentle giant with our grandchildren, he played with their toys as if they were his.

He did suffer from separation anxiety, he knew when I got out my handbag that I was going somewhere, so he would get up on our bed and sulk until I came home.

However, when I did arrive home, I would receive the greatest of welcomes.

He would be waiting at the front door with a present for me, be it a shoe, a toy, or even something out of the bin.

I would go to the toilet and he would go to the door first and stand there, then follow me in.

When Travis needed to go for a wee in the middle of the night, he would call me with a certain woof, only used at night. He would then stand at the toilet door as we passed by and look at me and almost say ‘if you are in a hurry, you can go first’. I was sick during 2013 and he never once called me, he would call my husband at his side of the bed instead. But as soon as I was well again, he started to call me during the night.

Our whole family miss him, he enriched our lives while he lived with us. Carmel Salley, Wicklow

If you would like your pet featured in this column please send a story of 440 words and a photograph to snews@independent.ie clearly labelled MY PET