Rest in Peace Sausage

   


Our dear beloved Sausage was put to sleep on Sunday, at 5.55pm. Every dog has his day and this was Sausages. He had chronic Kidney Failure and wasn't responding to his medicine. Sausage was surrounded by all of us at the end after me and livvy drove 250 miles through the night to be at his side. I truely believe he waited for us all to be together. I still cannot believe he is gone, he was such an amazing dog. 




Putting a dog down is a horrible experience, I literally saw his soul go in his eyes, like a light turning off, leaving us with his shell. My only solace from this was that he was surrounded by love and went with no pain. My pain I am experiencing now is a testament to all the joy he brought me. We have had so many lovely messages, phone calls and kind words about him, and its amazing to think of how many people he touched. 


He was grumpy and cantankerous, and had no time for anyone that wasn't in his inner circle, but all the love and time for people that were. I remember the first time I met him I came home from University to meet the new dog and he barked at me and I just burst out laughing because he was such a silly looking dog. 

Sausage was not a typical Dachs in many respects, he was a standard for a start, much larger than the mini ones you commonly see, infact, in my lifetime I've only seen a handful of standard dachshunds. Taking him out was like being with a celebrity, everyone yelled out "sausage!" or took pictures or stopped to say hello. His bark was so loud and deep people always expected a much bigger dog. People would bend down to pet him and he would wait untill they were about 1cm away before he would unleash such a loud woof it would make them jump backwards in shock. 


I was looking through photos of him so that I could pick out some favourites of him, and it is impossible, as there are thousands and thousands and thousands of photos of him, he literally came everywhere with us and shared all the ups and downs of life with us.


Here is a very small snippet of the many happy days we spent together in the 10 amazing years we were privileged to have him... This is the longest post I've ever done, for the longest dog I've ever known...

  

Sleepy Morning Sausage, he was so lazy in the morning!

A trip to Kates shop in Hayle, I am eating a pasty in this photo...and he is waiting for the crust. He loved Pasties!

                                                             One of his weird faces

  Duporth Beach, this Summer, with Benedict Bean...

    Surfing at Fistral Beach in Newquay, 2004.

   Looking very noble here, Sausage has an air of regal about him...

                                                            He loved sunbathing...

                                                Running through a daisy covered field....

          Carlyon Bay Beach, bottom of the steps. These steps are massive, he has basically
            stopped and is turning round to say "can you carry me up these please?!" (I did!)

 Carlyon Bay Beach. Sausage felt the cold alot so he had many jumpers and coats. Gemma's Nan
made him this one, I remember when she measured him he was one metre exactly from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail! He looks like a hermit crab here!!!!

Ears billowing in the wind as he runs across the beach, he had amazing long ears and massive bear paws.

   I always think he looks like he's going to say something really poignant here!

Kayaking with my mum and aunt at Golant. 

Urban Sausage trotting the streets of Brighton with us...

   One of his favourite pastimes, eating seaweed!

 Looking beautiful on the beach at Carlyon Bay again. He had such a shiny glossy coat and always looked like he had been varnished!

              

Steve was always taking photos of him, these ones are from a special camera that takes 4 continuous bursts of film and they are processed as one picture. Great for motion photographs. I like the one above but the one below he just stood there and refused to move! Stubborn Sausage!

 Fisheye lens on a Lomo Camera, Rock hopping at Lerryn River!

Another Fish eye photo, it was a hot day and Sausage was flat out on the kitchen floor to keep cool! I love this one and have it framed at home on the wall.

        Another Fish Eye photo, trying to wrestle seaweed off him, a regular battle with him!
                                                        At the Lizard Peninsular. 

                                                         Channeling an anteater here...

A walk in the Downs at Brighton on one of the many times he came to visit with mum, he wouldn't let go of his "baby" and carried it round the whole entire walk, like a protective mother.

                                                       Grinning at the camera again!

                                            Modelling dads sunglasses, bit of attitude here!

                                                     Late Night walk with the Sausage...

                                                  Me and Sausage at Carlyon Bay again,

At Carlyon Bay still, he loved rock climbing and followed me up the cliff to sit with me and watch the world go by.

At the Clay tips, I am waiting for him here as he would always stop and sniff everything, sometimes it could take ages to get anywhere!

 Near Veryan, we bought him this little dingy to encourage him to come in the sea with us. He hated it and jumped out and swan back to the beach again and sulked for ages!

He was always up for a modelling shoot I have so many photos of him wearing jewellery I have made...

 

He was such a poser.

Balmy evenings, here he is again at the Clay Tips, outside St Austell.

Just having a snooze...

                 

   Liv dressed him up as a ladybird in this photo...

                                   

                                          

    I love this one, he is actually smiling at the camera!

                                                         

Rub a dub dub theres a Sausage in the tub. He hated the sea but would tolerate a bath, mainly because he couldn't jump out!

Christmas 2011, sausage loved Christmas, he used to get really excited as he got presents too, usually a new toy for him to rip to bits, he would always rip open everyone else's presents too trying to find his own...

Halloween 2011, I was making some Spiders for the Makers Boutique Market and as usual sausage wanted to get involved so I covered him in loads of sticky dots...he trotted round all evening with these on!

Lazy Mornings with sausage, having a big lie in! 

 

Love this one, Gaga Sausage! Gem's Nan knitted this too!

in fact you could get a photo of him wearing pretty much anything...

His winter jacket, Steve used to call it his Ming the Merciless 

coat because it had a little collar that stood upright behind his neck. 

Camping at Hemmick Beach with my friends, summer 2011, so many photos of sausage from that weekend too, he is so photogenic!

  Falmouth - Andrew doing a "Lion King" Moment with Sausage 

                                                                     Sausage and Beans!

He loved a cup of tea! If you put down your tea for a second he would be there downing it! My dad always recalls when he was fixing the dormers in the house and made himself a cup of tea, and left it on the floor and went back up the ladder to do his work. When he came back down to drink it the tea was gone, which he thought was weird but promptly made another one, and went back up the ladder, only to have it happen again, it was only after realizing what was probably happening he watched and waited the next time, and sneaky sausage was running out, drinking his tea, and then running away again!

Sausage was always a good sport, he was excited when we were putting up the Christmas Decorations one year so I decided to cover him in Tinsel.

Took this with my Lomo Camera, it was my Birthday, 2008, at Rock. 

 In the garden at home, we are having a BBQ this day and he kept trying to steal sausages, infact, he was always trying to steal sausages!

Sausage loved a good snuggle, he's cheekily got into my bed here!

   At Mellinsey Mill, day out in Dads Porsche...

Sausage always had to get involved with what you were doing, I'm trying to work here and can't have him on my lap so he jumped up on the sofa to watch me instead.

                                                      His "air-sea-rescue" harness...

 He would sleep on his back, legs akimbo! No Shame that dog!

One of his many camping trips...

 And of course he loved coming beachcombing. He would snuffle about on the beach looking for seaweed, which he then ate, and promptly threw up hours later, usually in my car!

This is the last photo of me and sausage, took it in the garden with him the day we had him put down. He was so beautiful, even at the end.

You were a pleasure to know and there will never be a dog like you again. I love you and miss you so much. Goodnight my dear sweet friend. I will never ever forget you. 

All dogs go to heaven, see you there my friend. x