THIS is the last column I will write for the Somerset County Gazette.

Recently, Daisy, my beautiful lurcher, died. She was just nine and a half years old. She took ill suddenly on Tuesday night. She was vomiting and became breathless, and we took her to an emergency vet at 4am.

They diagnosed heart failure, put her in an oxygen tent, gave her meds, and scanned her.

They decided to keep her in for more tests and my wife and I were sent home at 6.30am.

Less than an hour later we received a call saying she had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

As we were driving back to the vets, they called again to say she had died. “I’m sorry Mark, she’s gone. I’m so sorry”.

Somerset County Gazette:

We got there ten minutes after she had passed.

We are in pieces, absolutely broken; devastated. Daisy arrived in May 2015, fresh from a foster home as she was not confident enough for kennels.

The police rescued her from a drugs den where she had been treated badly. She was terrified of wheelie bins, and I didn’t want to find out why.

Although she threw up on the way home, she settled quickly, loving the garden and the kids, and tolerating the cat.

We went running along the canal together and she got used to the routes to Taunton pubs, always sitting calmly and quietly, as long as I fed her crisps on a regular basis.

She was not the prettiest nor had the best pedigree; she was not skillful, and she would not have won a show for either looks or agility.

But I could wax lyrical about how loyal and loving she was; how playful and positive she always seemed; how she could compose a sonnet with her ears and express approval or contempt with just one glance from her dark chocolatey eyes.

I could go on about how much we will miss her; how the house seems bereft of life and every corner appears empty and desolate; how her suddenly unused beds, blankets, and toys haunt and harass me.

But in the end, maybe I’ll try to remember how Daisy loved life, loved people, loved the beach, loved the parks, loved other dogs, loved running. How she simply loved living.

Rest in peace, gorgeous girl. Life is so much poorer without you.