“Whatever you were doinghe wanted to be part of it. He would be bouncing all the time. No matter what.....”

Victoria MurrayPets by

We got Bailey as a rescue when he was 8 months old. He was a chocolate labrador and he was going to be big.

We already had a golden retriever and he was pretty big. Bailey was already as big as Max and Bailey’s paws were huge.

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When Bailey �rst arrived me and the kids weren’t sure,but my wife was.

She wanted a friend for Max because Max looked bored. We were new to dogs. We didn’t realise Max always would look bored. That was the look he did 95% of the time.

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Bailey was an in-your-face kind of a dog. Apparently this is quite common withchocolate labs. We didn’t know.

Whatever you were doing he wanted to be part of it. He would be bouncing all the time. No matter what. Bouncing and dancing. Dancing and bouncing. And he had a propeller tail that was just insane.

Exuberant is the word.

He was exuberating all the time. Initially people would �nd him intimidating but over time he would win them over. Everyone loved Bailey.

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And he turned out to be a brilliant friend for Max. Constant companion. Keeping Max in check and going to get him back when Max would decide to go deaf and run o�.

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So all was well in our house. Proper family. 2 dogs and cat. Cat was in charge. And family of people. It was that way for a couple of years. No great rescue stories or madcap adventures. Just a lot of fun and laughing.

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Bailey was just 3 years old when he died. He wasn’t knocked down. He wasn’t even ill. He just died.

In the space of a few short days he went from being o� his food to all his internal organs shutting down and then he was gone.

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Until it happened we never really knew how much of a relationship we had with our animals. We pretty much just took it for granted. I am certainly not saying that losing a pet is the same as losing a member of the family, but it kind of is.

Some months after the event the pain and shock goes away and we were looking for reminders. Things to make us smile. My wife has photos on her phonewhich she shows her friends, there are some pictures on facebook, but we hadn’t really got round to framed photos.

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So a few months in I realised I wanted a reminder of Bailey, something that would capture his personality, his essence. Something that we could look at and would just be nice, you know happy, sad, nostalgic. And I also wanted it permanent. So we would have Bailey as part of our family even though he is no longer with us.

I didn’t really want a photo because, as great as they are, they can be a bit �at.

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I knew Vicky and that she did sensitive thoughtful pet illustrations. I knew the frame was classy and hand-made. I knew the price was OK and there was a 100% guarantee so all the commercial stu� was taken care of. I asked her to do one for us.....

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I knew it would be good, and it was much better than that. But to be truthful and completely honest it wouldn’t have really mattered anyway, because it’s not about quality - it’s about how it makes us feel. And you know what - every time I look at it I smile....

And that pretty much says it all.

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