Smudge, Our beautiful Dogue De Bordeaux was born on June 28th 2004 and came to live with us in October 2004. She was special from the very first day we got her, preferring to sleep on our bed rather than in hers! Preferring to eat our food (roast chicken especially) to her own! Feeding her by hand was sometimes the only way to get her to eat when she was a puppy and she would run around the garden digging huge holes. Puppy school was a disaster and she was expelled!! As the years went by, she mellowed into a beautiful loyal lady who would spend lazy days in any sun spot she could find.
She was a family dog and loved nothing more than catching stones on the beach or going for a walk or drive, Smudge would never leave your side, she was a loyal and faithful friend.
When she was 2 years old we got her a friend, another Dogue De Bordeaux – this time a male whom we named Diesel, he grew to be her lifelong companion and when Smudge was 4 years old we allowed the two to mate and Diesel was to become father to a litter of pups of which we kept one female whom we named Angel.
When smudge was 6 years old we noticed that she was passing a little blood in her urine and had developed minor incontinence, we took her to the vet who prescribed medication but gradually the incontinence got worse and we referred for tests with a specialist, after the tests we received the devastating news that she had developed bladder cancer and was given a life expectancy of just 3 months.
This was a huge blow to us all and we were given drugs for her to control the cancer and the incontinence. These drugs worked for a while but her body developed immunity and she gradually deteriorated, although she did beat the vets prediction and we were lucky enough to enjoy a further year with her.
On 24th August 2011, my husband and I made the difficult decision to say goodbye to her, she spent her last day in the sun, on the beach and being loved by her family – exactly what she would’ve wanted.
She has left us a legacy in her daughter, Angel who is now 2 and she will live on in her spirit.
We will miss Smudge forever and it was the hardest but kindest thing we have ever done, one day we will throw stones for her again.
