I awoke this morning at 4:30, and the house was extremely quiet ... too quiet. I could hear the occasional sound of Nina breathing beside me, but nothing else apart from that constant background high pitched squeal that I always hear (like the sound of an old TV warming up).

What had me worried was that I couldn't hear our puppy snoring ... anywhere - the house was too quiet, and she's probably on her last legs. I couldn't help wondering if she had gone outside somewhere to enter her final sleep.

I thought that would be ironic {I've probably misused that word} given she has a vet appointment today which is likely to cost a fortune in replenishing all her drugs.

After 15-20 minutes of straining my ears, I eventually decided I had to get up and check up on her - I found her downstairs sleeping quite quietly (but alive!!!) in one of the baskets, so I went upstairs to get her morning tablet, and when I popped downstairs again, she was walking around - she took the tablet and followed me back upstairs to go back to sleep under the bed (while I got ready for the day ahead).

Yes, she could live to see her next birthday (she'll be nine) or beyond ... or she could go downhill quickly and not last our the week - either way she's a special puppy and deserves all our love while she is with us.