On June 1, 2023, in a quiet room inside an emergency vet surgery in Glasgow, my dog Fionn died after eleven years by my side.

I was living, and teaching, on Arran when he first arrived. I had completed my first year, passed my probation, secured a permanent job, found a house, and got married. I had a whole island to explore, and a new life opening up in front of me, so I needed a dog, and Fionn, a tricolour collie pup from a farm in the borders, was perfect.

Over the course of his first few months with us we trained him on beaches, up hills, and in forests, but as I always used to tell people, the truth is that largely taught himself. Fionn was the kind of dog whose only goal in life was to have people love him, and he quickly realised that being the Best Dog in the World™ was the way to achieve that.

Between 2012 and 2020 we went all over Scotland in cars, buses and trains, but the Covid pandemic brought that to a halt and, for reasons we don’t need to go into here, even meant that he had to leave us for while to stay with my wife’s parents. Over the second of his life he needed several operations, all of which I paid for without being able to afford them, and in the end the last one proved to be too much. He never really recovered from it and his heart couldn’t cope.

I wasn’t there during his final night. Instead, he stayed at the surgery for treatment that I knew wouldn’t work,........

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