Bye bye Cara

Deviating a bit from the usual, but our family dog Cara passed away in her sleep last night and a tribute was needed. Known as the Red Sister or the Mad Sister (depending on the extent of her adventures that day), she was a 12 year old Irish Setter who still looked like a puppy (she wasn't a full-sized Setter).

She liked to stand and lean against your leg when you sat on the sofa and sometimes she'd rest her head on your knee while leaning. Or she'd lie down on the floor and use your foot for a pillow. She liked to drink rainwater out of plant pots rather than clean water from her bowl and if she caught you looking she'd go all mad guard dog on the magpies in the garden.

From time to time she'd be brave enough to climb the stairs in the house (varnished wood and slippery under doggie paws) and then she'd sit stubbornly at the top looking down, too afraid to make her own way back downstairs. And when you'd lift her to carry her back down, her paws would stick straight out in front of her, she'd be so tense (although she'd turn her head and look nonchalantly in the other direction as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening).

She will be missed a lot. Here she is, caught in the middle of offering her paw to the photographer.