It will never be the same.

About 16 years ago, we got a puppy dog.  Her name was Jessie and she was a Border Collie.  She was a fun dog, always running and barking.  Now, she's quite frail, as 17 year old dogs tend to get.  She has arthritis and cataracts, so she isn't as active as she once was.

Yesterday morning, Mum and Dad found her paralysed, so they took her to the vet fearing the worse.  Jessie was diagnosed with severe hepatitis, which can paralyse apparently.  She was given antibiotics to see if she would recover, but was only give a 50/50 chance of improving.  24 hours later, she's improved a little, but she's still pretty sick.

She's pretty close to the end, but Dad wants to try and help her to the weekend, when he's finished his job in Lithgow before deciding anything.  We had a suspicion that Jessie might not last the rest of this year after falling down the stairs late last year, her degrading health seemed to be an indication of this.  Jessie probably only has a few days left in her, no more than 3 weeks I would suspect.

It will be very different without Jessie, I'll miss her.