Merlin Southon

THEIR’S WAS 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.

A VERY SAD DAY (26.9.2016)

Things went brilliantly for seven months but, then, Benson, sadly, became ill and was taken away to Rainbow Bridge.