Bizzi Bartholomew-Fletcher

Kerrigan and Jason lost Bizzi last year on Thursday 25th April but they say it still feels like a BIG part of their lives is missing and empty.

After Bizzi went to Rainbow Bridge, the next few weeks were a bit of a blur. The kids at school were heartbroken over Bizzi as she was Kerrigan’s therapy dog for 8yrs and they all loved her to bits.

It is so hard when they hit a brick wall. She had been going off her legs rapidly. She couldn’t stand up and they knew the kind thing to do was the thing we all hate doing. She was a lucky girl to have 2 such devoted dads.

Kerrigan said “It was very peaceful but I can’t bring myself to tell anyone to be honest. Every time people are nice, it seems to make it worse”. Bizzi, for sure, is now happily reunited with Romy and Archie.

MEETING BIZZI

Kerrigan remembers “We met Bizzi by accident. We were putting Romy into kennels while we were going on holiday and the kennels we were taking her to also had a ‘Rescue’ part to them where they took in unwanted dogs. When we took Romy there we asked to see Bizzi as we had spotted her online and she looked a bit like Romy.

Bizzi came bounding over full of energy and literally jumped in our arms and started giving us the Big Sell. By then it was already too late as we knew we wanted her. Bizzi was 3 months old and had been found wandering alone down a busy lane which is, sadly, a known area for dumping dogs.

We asked the kennels to see how they would get on together while we were away and if they did we would take Bizzi when we got home from holiday. Needless to say they did and the rest is history.

Bizzi was a bit of a rascal. We put our house on the market as we lived in Exeter at that time. One afternoon, we went out leaving Bizzi secure in the kitchen. On returning, we were mortified to see she had ripped up half the lino in the kitchen, been in every cupboard and consumed dried pasta, a bag of sugar, cooking chocolate and possibly some lino too. I think she was quite sick after that but, miraculously, survived.

I miss her personality as she was so individual. She wasn’t a dog who tried to please you like Ollie and Starlight do. In fact she was the opposite; she was a bit disgruntled and grumpy. She didn’t like small dogs for some strange reason and would flash them her teeth as a warning that she was around.

They always took the hint. Despite that she was a popular member of the gang at Gizzie’s Get Togethers.

Bizzi had diabetes and was on daily injections of insulin. Langford’s Veterinary Hospital have described her as a ”medical miracle” as she responded so unusually to her medication that we had to tread a very fine line with her for many years, monitoring her every few hours, to prevent crashes or extreme highs in her blood sugars. In fact, we were all videoed and she became part of their training curriculum for their students.

She was a dog who would curl up next to you and be with you. I started taking her to work at my school where I was the art therapist and the kids loved her there. They would take her for walks and sometimes just spend time being with her as she was so relaxed. She was a great help to the kids who were terrified of dogs due to some earlier bad experiences and she helped them through their trauma.

I was amazed at how much she affected a lot of people’s lives and when she died I felt like I lost both my dog and my little helper. Run free again, sweet lady.