OSCAR ~ RIP & OSCAR'S LEGACY TO ALL DOG OWNERS

OSCAR

RIP

10th May 2013 ~ 28th January 2014

Oscar loved his walks

Oscar was killed last night.

Our hearts are broken.

Our big gentleman of a puppy has left a huge hole in our hearts and our home.

I feel sick since it happened.  My husband and I have done nothing but hug and cry.

But I want to use his death to try to prevent any other dog owner to lose their beloved pet in the stupidly easy way we lost our darling Oscar.

Every evening my husband would take Oscar for his last walk of the day and while he was out doing this I would make the dinner.

Last night, at 6pm, I heard my husband come back into the house and call my name.  I knew from his voice there was something wrong and ran out into the hall asking him what was wrong.  I knew it was bad ~ there was no Oscar standing there.

He said "I think Oscar is dead".

I very nearly passed out.  The shock as you can imagine was overwhelming.

Just as my husband went to step inside our gates from their walk a noise spooked Oscar and he leapt and pulled backwards.  Ordinarily if the loud noise of a large truck say spooked him he would have leapt forward and had that been the case last night he would be here today.

But by pulling backwards he slipped his collar and was hit and killed instantly by a passing car.

It was a good quality, strong collar correctly fitted ~ Oscar never pulled on his lead so we never used a choke chain just a standard collar.  I have had dogs all my life and in our married life we have rarely been without a dog and have never had a dog slip a collar before and we do know how to fit them so that wasn't the problem.  It was the fact he pulled backwards.

Through my tears last night I swore that I would NEVER use a collar when walking any future dog we have (and we will have another ~ life without a dog to us is not just not normal).

But as my dear friend and adopted daughter, Chelsea in Canada said to me on hearing how Oscar died, this can be Oscar's legacy ~ the warning to all other dog owners to go NOW, RIGHT NOW and buy a harness.

Never again walk your dog with just a collar.  Only walk your beloved pet using a harness.

Put a link to this blogpost on your facebook page, tweet it, text the warning, telephone a friend with a dog ~ do what you have to do but PLEASE tell all dog owners.

Oscar's legacy will be that no-one else loses their beloved pet because of an accident that could so easily be prevented by using a harness instead of a collar.

Our darling Oscar