What would you do?

[rob winemaker]

This might not be a pleasant topic but some recent health issues just set me to thinking. Not anything too serious but when you reach a certain and I have, you start to wonder about the big picture and many of us here know that aches and pains you'd shake off when you were younger are not so easy any more.

What I'm getting at here is , what provisions if any have you made if something were to happen to you? My boys are a tad over 2y/o. if they were to live the long life that many of my other Reds have, well, that puts me right up there. We've all heard stories of people way younger than where ever you're at that just keel over. In my case, Beth is here but what if it was a major catastrophe where we were both unable to care for them. I have a daughter but she is not in a position to take them nor would she probably want to.

We all have different situations.

Can you make provisions for IS Rescue?.  I guess I don't know. A singer here recently shot her dog before she killed herself. How terribly awful.  So when I was feeling not well last week, the workings of my mind made me start to wonder. Not a pleasant subject I know but I was wondering if anyone has ever given thought to this.

[Howard Glansfield]

It has worried me , particularly as I had a stroke not long ago.Joan and I looked into various options but,we hope,the problem has been answered for us by two good friends who have said they will take the two dogs on if they outlive us.

I believe there is a charity http://www.cinnamon.org.uk/home.php which will help.

[Carmel Murphy]

Very interesting topic! I have been thinking about this recently, but havent come up with a plan yet! I know I couldnt ask someone to take all 6 dogs if something happened to me? I know I could ask certain friends and family to take one dog each, so I must ask and put the plan in motion;o) Of course the breeders of the two I didnt breed  would probably take them back;o) I know I would take back a dog I bred if something happened to their owners!! Have taken back two already, for different reasons ;o)

[silvia]

Hi Rob

first, i hope your concern is unnecessary and all of you live a long life all toghether:) however, it makes lot of sense to be worry on what happens to our four legged friends..

in the UK, if you become member of dogtrust, for 25£ a year you have the membership and they will take care of your dog whatever happens to you, via rehoming...

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/default.aspx#.USP9w_K...

the only caveat is that you also have "automatically" a third part insurance (which is good!!) but this can clash with any existing third part insurance you may already have.. for instance, we are under helpucover and the third part insurance of helpucover, for which we pay, is nil if we have another third part insurance with another company (as dog trust), but on the other hand the excess on dog trust is a bit higher than what we should have with helpucover... apart from these small prints, that we have to check case by case in case they are not applicable/convenient  for some of us, i think dogtrust does an excellent work and is worth to support..

hope it helps, maybe you can find some similar charities in the US?

cheers

s

[Dianne cook]

You are right Rob to think that way, we all do from time to time. I'm very fortunate that two of my children would give our Irish the very same home they have now. Our property is left to the children to raise our Irish and their dogs together for ours not much would change. I know people have there views on the RSPCA bequest program but have seen it first hand and the pets are placed and monitored till they pass. I guess from time to time there will be a case we hear about which makes you wonder if it works. If ever I end up with a couple less pooches, I will register to take on a bequest pet, it would be most rewarding :))

[rob winemaker]

My problem is that I usually don't plan things too well long term. And like Silvia said, I would hope not to have this sort of problem but as I am sure you can attest to Howard, ( how's that arm doing ) there is nothing like being ill to make one 'stop for pause'. I have never given any of this thought at all and I think I need to look into what options might be. I was curious to hear from folks with several dogs as that would be most problematic. What about some of the larger kennels? In my case, my breeder is older than I am and actually considered at one point last year of giving me a new pup when she had an extended stay in the hospital. My wish and hope is that my current boys are not my last IS. Health and happiness to all but we all know that life sometimes demands difficult choices that we weren't expecting to have to make. I hope that more people respond to this thread.

[Sue Paterson]

With 5 Irish, if we were to encounter ill health and worse in the next couple of years, it would be exceedingly hard for our daughters and families to take on all of them, as they have said they would. However I know that they would do their best, and, whatever it may be, their inheritance, is there to help fund the dogs' needs.

Two of our family are relatively old, and hard though it will be to lose them it would undeniably make things easier for the girls to cope.

I cannot imagine life without a house full of our beloved Irish, but we will put our own selfish wishes to one side and have to be content with 3 then 2 and then 1, but hopefully at least 1 always, if our health allows.          

[Rhonda Fisher]

It is truly the sign of a Setter Lover, when we measure out lives by not how much money we make but how many setters we hope to love before we go. I think our home as an inheritance comes with dogs. Have had a chat to our daughter but nothing really serious. Now that she has cats it would prove difficult. Time for a rethink.

[James Doran]

My sister and i have an agreed understanding in respect of each others dogs, in relation to certain scenarios.

[susan clemence]

I've had to give this some thought recently, I'm still in good health but last year I had to place my Mum in residential care due to Alzheimers (this is the 4th person in my family to get it).  Hopefully I will have a setter for the rest of my life but I can't help but think what would happen if I went for a walk with my dogs and got lost and couldn't find my way home.  I know the setters I have at the moment wouldn,t lead  me home they would just stay by my side until some stranger came to my aid.  As you may gather this happened to Mum on several occassions.  My friend has agreed to take my dogs and I hers if anything happens to us.  One other thing, don't think leaving a property to your children will guarantee they will get it.  Make sure you sign it over to them while you still have mental capacity or the property will have to be sold to pay care home fees.  Certainly the last year has made me think of the future and it is thanks to my setters that I have got through it all.  They are the most loving supportive breed, Long may I own one.

[karen chesher]

This is a subject i can speak about with personal experiance,my dad who owned a beautiful 3 year old setter called Lucy and he  died very suddenly from a simply hospital procedure which was performed incorrectly and resulted in my dad spending a month in intensive care with pancreatitis before he died.This tore our family apart my mum living with no other family nearby to help out with Lucy,could not stand to spend her days without company to ease the lose of losing my dad.threw herself into her hobbies of scottish dancing and bowling and poor Lucy was spending alot of time on her own.Im sure some of you would think that was so wrong of her but please remember people deal with there grief in strange ways.

My brother lived in a shared rented flat and worked full time and i live in a small house near a city centre and at the time had an 18 month old child and had to deal with persuing a 4 year court case against the NHS as well as losing my dad who i was very close too.Both of us well over a hundred miles from Mum .

My mum made the decision to rehome Lucy who went to live with an eldery gentleman who had had several setters over the years and clearly thought the world of her ,yes i was concerned about his age but the fact he was an experianced setter owner and the verbal agreement we made -if things did not work out with Lucy she was to be returned to the family and i kept in regular contact via phone and christmas cards each year and everything went well for a few years.

HOWEVER christmas 2011 i hadnt received my usual christmas card,so i tried phoning in the new year to check all was well with Lucy and her new owner-no answer .this was really starting to bother me so a wrote a nice letter saying sorry to bother you but please can you contact me and let me know everything is ok -im worried about Lucy -still no answer.After another few weeks i was really concerned and decided to travel over to visit as i was so worried, i knew the new owner could get upset with me for coming over to see him ,but the way i saw it if he genuinely loved Lucy like i did he would be happy to put my mind at rest.   

To cut a long story short Lucy had been far from ok,her new owner lived by himself and had a very bad stroke  and Lucy had been in the process off been taken off with the police to a dog rescue centre-no contact imformation regarding myself had been kept with Lucys papers.However A WONDERFUL LADY came to her rescue,Julie who was passing by in her car. julie already has 3 male irish setters herself and very kindly offered a foster home to Lucy before she was able to take her permanently to live with her.This had all happened and i was completley unaware.

Though Julie and Lucys kind neighbours i have been reunited with Lucy again and Julie and i have become good friends through our love of Lucy.

I hope Julie will not mind me telling Lucys story (please forgive me what i have missed out Julie i only wanted to quote the facts and im sure ive not remembered everything you have done to rescue Lucy) but with this thread being so appropriate i just wanted to share with you all what can happen in circumstances you never expect to find yourself in.But i hope my family have acheived what we always wanted as in whats best for Lucy.

But this beauitful dog has been very very lucky and as you know i will be forever grateful to you Thankyou Julie.

[Carmel Murphy]

Beautiful story Karen! Glad all turned out well for Lucy;o)

[rob winemaker]

Great story How old is Lucy.