We had to put Ari down this afternoon.
He was suffering from paralysed nerves in his larynx which made breathing for him very difficult. He overheated at the dog groomers yesterday, collapsed with a panic attack, and had to be rushed to the Mt Barker Veterinary Clinic to be sedated.
Today he could barely walk up our drive. He was very weak and he could not balance on the tiles in the laundry–his back legs just slide underneath him and he would lie spreadeagled on the floor unable to get up. He was a month shy of being 16 years old. He lived a full life with lots of walks.
This is one of the last photos that I took of Ari. It was in autumn in 2017 on an early morning poodlewalk along Encounter Bay. The photo is from this session in March:
I didn’t take any more after this.
Below is a photo from the last early morning poodlewalk with Ari. On Tuesday I parked the car at the top car park at Petrel Cove and we slowly walked along the path on the north western side of side of Rosetta Head:
The photo is of the coastal landscape where he used to walk in the mornings.
Another area where he used to walk in the last couple of months of 2017 was along Jetty Rd. He could no longer climb steps or walk over rocks:
He was a great companion, and when younger, he accompanied me on my phototrips and on holidays. He also walked with me when I was photographing along the coast and walking with me around Adelaide’s CBD when we were living in the city. He had a big presence and he will be greatly missed.
After putting him down I took Kayla and Maleko on an afternoon to his favourite part of the coast. I took some photos of seaweed with the Rolleiflex SL66 on a tripod like the old times, then sat on a rock and had a good cry.His presence was everywhere.
so sad
yes. He had a long and well lived life Gavin.