Yesterday, we had to have my dog Riker (greyhound cross whippet) put to sleep. He was 12 years old and I had had him since he was a tiny puppy.

Since Monday he became rapidly ill ending up with a stroke on Thursday which left him suffering badly. He was thought to have a severe neurological problem. I do not doubt the decision I made but the memories of him being in pain and distress on Thursday night and Friday morning will haunt me for some time.

I will miss Riker deeply since he had been with me my entire adult life (since I was about 18) and shared pretty much all my memories with me, came to all the places I moved to, moved from country to country with me. I take consolation in that Riker never had any other illness in his entire 12 year life until the end (unless you count the little bit of arthritis he'd developed in the past couple of years, but it never seemed to bother him too much). And that for the last week, and for the end, we were lucky enough to find a truly caring and wonderful vet who did everything he could to help us and council us.

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Excuse me if I'm not around too much or very responsive in the coming days. This has come at a particularly bad time for me because my depression has been at a very low point in the past weeks. I will endeavor to keep working on all owed art but once again, if you have unstarted art that you would like a refund on please just contact me - it is no problem to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.