Ollie: Missing His Lost Friends

~ beetleypete

When I started to take Ollie out in 2012, he had at least nine best friends in the canine world.

Now, few of those are left. We recently heard about Ellie, the Spaniel. She was around ten years old, and had to be put to sleep after a large tumour was discovered inside her.

Some are still around. Toby the Jack Russell for one. Then yesterday, we encountered Rocky, the Black Labrador. We hadn’t seen him that much during the bad weather, so it was nice to discover that he was fit and well, and as lively as ever. Ollie was pleased to see him, after all that time.

There are some new friends arriving, but Ollie is reluctant to admit them to his ‘gang’. Missy the Whippet. She loves Ollie, and runs circles around him, like a tiny whirlwind. Ruby, the Chocolate Labrador, who searches him out with obvious delight, whenever she sees him. He still stands and looks at the entrances to Beetley Meadows and Hoe Rough, and I just know he is searching for his absent friends.

We also met up with Teddy, the young Alsatian. He wants to play all the time, but doesn’t realise just how big he is. After a lot of jumping around Ollie, and barking at him incessantly, Ollie finally allowed a short play. Chasing round in circles, splashing into the river, and trying to avoid Teddy as the big dog swipes him with huge paws. Ollie has soon had enough, and a few growls tell Teddy playtime is over for now.

As I chat to Teddy’s lady owner, Ollie stares into the distance at the entrance to Beetley Meadows from the road we live on. He seems to be waiting for older, more familiar friends. I try to tell him they will not be coming, but of course he doesn’t understand.

And what of Strudel, one of his best-ever friends? We haven’t seen her for so long now, I am wondering if she is okay.

Just as we mourn our friends, dogs do too.

They search for their smells, sniff their familiar owners, and wonder why the dogs are no longer around.

Loss and grief are not just human emotions. I’m certain of that.

60 thoughts on “Ollie: Missing His Lost Friends”

  1. Dogs are emotional beings, they miss people just as we do. My dog was truly my dad’s best son. The constant moving due to regular transfers was difficult for him because the company changed often, and unlike us, he did not understand the circumstances. I have seen him play mother to a chick and a couple of pups we owned for a short time. He was fiercely protective and very loving to everyone close to him.

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  2. Strudel? 😉 Really a given name? With this name it sounds she has enduring “bad hair days”. 😉 However, i am feeling so sorry for Ollie. Friends in the canine area can not really replace by human ones. But you are adopted by him, i am sure. Best wishes, Michael

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  5. (1) Toby belongs to Punch and Judy.
    (2) Rocky is a sly member of BLM (Black Labradors Matter)
    (3) Missy is into BDSM. Whippet, chainet, spanket, licket, waxet…
    (4) Ruby’s not fond of rural Norfolk. According to Kenny, she’d rather take her love to town.
    (5) Teddy has a nice coat of hair. We’d hate to see Teddy bare.
    (6) Strudel’s owner runs a pastry shop.

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  6. So true…we had to put our blue heeler, Moxie, down just after Christmas. She was 16. It was very hard. Chaka, our English Shephard, had a hard time with it for about 3 weeks…I would love to see the little whippet running joyful circles around Ollie. I love those dogs.

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    1. Missy the Whippet is a delight to behold, Pam. She is so tiny and fast, like a blur of joyfulness.
      I will try to get her on video one day, but I never know when her owner is going to show up.
      So sorry to hear about Moxie. That’s hard to bear.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  7. They can truly mourn friends. I saw one starve to death once, due to being separated from her littermate of 5 years, there was nothing they could do for her. No way to find the other littermate any longer. Tragic it couldn’t have been seen by the people that seperated them.

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      1. It was very sad. We had no idea, where the mate was sent to, so no way to reunite them. Had the breeder told us they were that attached, we would have taken both. But the other was sent to another home. No records kept. Thanks for the comment Shaily.

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  8. I’m glad he had the opportunity to make so many friends, you see so many dog owners who are afraid that their dogs will fight that they never let them off to play.
    Give him an ear rub from me 🙂

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  10. We had to put our beloved yellow lab, Jake, down at the start of the pandemic. That left his younger sister, Lulu, who came from the same parents but from a different litter. I felt for sure that she would miss him as she used to tag along behind him wherever he went. It’s been curious because she never acted depressed or ever looked for him after we had to put him down. I still can’t bring up Jake’s name without my wife falling to pieces. We took that one hard because he was the best dog we’ve ever owned.

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    1. How strange that Lulu doesn’t miss him. Perhaps she enjoys being the only one to get attention now? Tragic to lose that best-ever dog, I can’t even imagine my life without Ollie.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  14. Dogs have a inner sense and knowing, they feel loss and I believe they grieve when both people and animals they are close to die. My dog was despondent for weeks after we had to put our cat down, they hung out together, slept on the same bed and I couldn’t interpret the behavior any other way? C

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  19. Awe, poor Ollie. Of course, he misses his old friends. Dogs are so sensitive. As for those younger, crazy new friends, Dot can sympathize as she is getting used to her new little sister.

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    1. He likes the girls a lot, but doesn’t play with them. It is the older male dogs he remembers from when he was a pup that he seems to really miss. Probably a ‘pack memory’ or something similar.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  24. They‘re not. And dogs especially have been known to grieve over their dead owners, too, watching over their graves, etc. I‘m sorry for Ollie, to have lost so many of his friends and to be missing them — even if he‘s made new friends in the interim, too.

    A large watch dog named Teddy? 🙂 Props to the owner for not going for the obvious …

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