I read something recently that really stuck with me- sadly I can’t remember where, but it was poignant, nonetheless.

Exmouth author Emma Richardson, writes for the Journal.

The writer was talking about the fact that at some point in your role as a parent, you pick up and carry your child for the last time. In the event, you don’t know it’ll be the last time you do it, it just becomes something that happened and then doesn’t happen again- kids grow, become less dependent. I’d never thought of that before reading it, but it’s so true. My three are all adult-sized now and looking at them, it seems bizarre that I was ever able to pick them up; but just for a moment I can cast my mind back to that feeling of having a small human reach up for you, put their arms around your neck and fall asleep on your shoulder. It’s funny what you didn’t realise had gone.

These passing moments are also currently poignant for us as a family as our very elderly dog is reaching the inevitable stage of not being with us for much longer. We look at him now struggling to walk or to eat his dinner without his legs giving way, and can barely remember what it was like to have a dog that would chase a ball, bark at the doorbell or walk for miles across Dartmoor. Just like carrying your child for the last time- a momentous but completely unremarkable event, when was the last time we threw a ball for Toby? The occasion came and went without us even realising it.

Spring is the time for new beginnings and fresh life- hope after the darkness of winter but I guess what I’m also feeling now is that with new beginnings often come endings too. One of the best things that animals teach us is the preciousness of life and how to enjoy the moment. Toby never worries about ‘that thing at work’ next week or what someone else thinks of him, he lives for the moment even if that moment now is just lying on his bed watching the cats walk past. Becoming ever more aware that his time with us is limited we are making the most of every day with him and I suppose what I’m hoping to convey is that if we do this every day, be consciously in the present- not just with pets but with the people in our lives, then even those things you realise will never happen again were enjoyed to the fullest.