Benson Southon

OUR LOVELY BENSON HAS GONE (26.9.2016)

All was going very well for the boys and they had a brilliant seven months in their new home but then, tragically, things changed again.

Benson was off colour for a few days and colon cancer was suspected. After all the ups and downs and considering his age, it wouldn’t have been right to put him through surgery so he went, peacefully, to sleep. Merlin was with him and sniffed him once he’d gone, licked him and let out a heartbreaking howl. We could only hope he would be ok without the best friend he had lived with for his entire life and the only comfort we could take was that Benson was now reunited with his beloved Dad, Gus.

Peter told us “Anne and I were very upset to lose Benson so soon although we had seven months of great joy with him. The last two weeks of his life he went downhill fast and several visits to the vets couldn’t prevent his final goodbye. We were heart broken and it has left a very big hole in our hearts.

Merlin was with him when he went to sleep and he also checked his body before I buried him. Because of that Merlin knows and has accepted his demise and is getting on with life very well. He loves his food, his walks and the extra fuss he is getting. He hates to be without my company and he loves it when I come back from doing things elsewhere. We have a lovely bond between us and great companionship”.

SUCH A SAD STORY

We were asked to help two beautiful Golden Retrievers, Benson aged 11yrs and his son, Merlin aged 5yrs. They had been used to wonderful, happy lives, always being really well cared for and loved to bits, but, sadly, these lovely Welsh boys needed to be rehomed due to a heartbreaking situation.

Their owner, Gus, was diagnosed with terminal lung disease and had got to a stage where he could no longer walk them. His wife, Rosemary, has Parkinson’s and he was her carer so she couldn’t look after them either. Both Gus and Rosemary were absolutely heartbroken.

Marilyn, a wonderful friend, who had known Gus and Rosemary and the boys for years, was walking the dogs but everyone knew that was just a temporary solution and what was needed was a new home where the boys could continue to live together.

It was Marilyn who contacted IRR and, with Gus deteriorating rapidly and Rosemary increasingly fragile, she was happy to help with the assessment of prospective new owners so Gus and Rosemary would only need to become involved once we felt pretty certain we had found the perfect forever home for Benson and Merlin.

We knew these circumstances weren’t going to change and we tried to make things as painless as possible for them as they were both having to come to terms with losing not just their precious boys but each other too. In this very special case, it was decided to abandon our normal procedure and to rehome the boys directly if possible.

A PERFECT FOREVER HOME

This is exactly what happened and a lovely couple, Anne and Peter, offered Benson and Merlin a perfect forever home where the boys settled in remarkably well.

Gus, sadly, has died so Rosemary lost her husband and her dogs but their adopters are extremely kind and have been sending regular updates, photos and videos.