Goodbye, Our Little Mate

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A Reflection from the Road

This has been one of the hardest posts I have ever had to write. I've started and restarted it so many times. Please keep reading, because this is not a sad post. It is a celebration.

How do you sum up 16 years with your best mate?

Last week we lost our beautiful little girl, Zoe. She was with us from eight weeks old and our constant travel companion for the past three years. She had the fullest, most loved life, and she taught us so many lessons along the way.

The most important lesson I learnt from our wise old girl: live in the present. Love every moment of life that you have right now. Try not to worry about the future or relive the past. Simply live for this very moment.

Zoe was a cheeky girl. I'll never forget the time she was in trouble as a puppy for doing something naughty, most likely chewing something she shouldn't have. When she was told off, she turned around and took a chunk of plaster out of the corner of the wall, with a cheeky grin and a wag of her tail. It was hard not to laugh at her audacity.

I remember the times she'd exhaust herself at the dog park or down the beach, chasing balls and swimming in circles. And the times she'd sit patiently with me when I was overcome with anxiety, but would request a chauffeured ride anywhere that got her away from the thunder she feared.

She came everywhere with us and was loved by everyone she met. She was the unofficial mascot of the Purple Octopus Car Wash, which Neil and I built together, and she started a pet treat brand with me, her best puppy mate Rudi, and his mum.

Zoe travelled over 50,000km with us and met so many dogs, cats (not her fave), donkeys, emus, water buffalo, goats (very confused), kangaroos, wallabies, a snake (don’t tell Neil), horses, and people who were harassed for a pat during her nightly campsite walk to greet her subjects.

But her favourite of all were the chickens. Zoe adored chickens. She first met them in Merimbula, where about 50 of them stalked her from the other side of a fence. It was like a cartoon: two steps forward from Zoe and a quick shuffle from the chickens. The minute she turned to see what was going on, they froze. This continued for the entire 50 metre length of the fence. We have never laughed so hard at our confused little girl. And so began her obsession. If we stayed somewhere with a chicken coop, it needed checking at least three times a day, just to make sure everyone was ok. The Tambo chicken races were the highlight of her travels, so much so that we went back twice to indulge her.

Every day is getting easier to remember the good times, and there were so many.

If you’re travelling with your pup, or any pet, please give them a hug from Zoe and us. And remember the most important lesson from our beautiful girl: love life, and live in the present.

Travel Safe, our beautiful girl.

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