I really appreciate it...

A blog draft Hazel wrote a few weeks ago that I hadn't got around to editing. Hazel passed away this week.....

Hi! Hazel here. Been a while...

Yes, I'm still around, even if I'm a little slower, a lot deafer, and mum says a helluva lot smellier than I used to be. I quite like my new perfume thank you!!

As you know mum's been away in New Zealand sliding around on some cold white stuff ( I prefer sliding down sand dunes myself), but she left me here in the care of a very nice lady called Mel. Hi Mel, hope you're enjoying life. And it got me thinking that I've got a lot to be grateful for.

I really appreciate how much mum cares about me. How she's never put me in a kennel but found wonderful humans to love and nurture me when mum can't be there herself. How she always takes me with her if she can, in fact she's even knocked back jobs when they told her I wasn't welcome.

It's meant I've seen some pretty amazing places and taken some pretty wacky transport. Planes, automobiles, boats, kayaks, windsurfers..... I've barked at kites and howled when mum's gone diving underwater, but she's always come back for me. I appreciate she forgives me my little neuroses...

I appreciate that she lets me sleep on the bed. Mum says the dog books reckon that sleeping on the bed is all about dominance, which is why she makes me jump off before she goes to bed. Or at least get out of her way. I like to think we treat each other as equals...

I appreciate that she doesn't make me wear a collar all the time - man those things make me itchy - and doesn't poison me routinely every month with Frontline. Yeah I know we have to use it some of the time, but do you have any idea how disgusting that stuff makes everything taste? It's not just the fleas that get to feel miserable with that shit...

I appreciate that we moved to WA. I may have been born in the Territory but my background is definitely salt water people. I lurve the ocean and the beach and being able to wander down there any time I please.

I appreciate that mum loves me so much that she won't let me suffer when I get too old to do normal doggie things. I've had arthritis for a few years now, and I'm slowing down a lot, but I trust that she'll know when I'm hurting too much and let me go.

You really are the best mum a dog could have.

Thanks mum xx