About Laurel

I’ve shared my heart with five beautiful Toy Poodles, and my days now are illuminated by Scampi “Scampilicious” Poodle, a celestial little being, my creature from the woods, who fills every moment with light.
But I also know the deep heartbreak of loss, the kind of loss that changes you forever.

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On Monday 16 May 2022, at 11 am, I left the house with my beautiful Pixie “Bandit” Poodle by my side. He was just 23 months old, full of life and energy. At 5pm, I returned home alone.

Pixie’s ball was still at the bottom of the stairs where he had left it that morning. I wandered aimlessly around the house in shock, unable to make sense of what had happened.
In the days that followed, I couldn’t eat or sleep.

That morning, Pixie had bolted from the park. He was hit by a white van that didn’t stop. When I reached him, he was lying in the road, paws outstretched, looking as though he was sleeping. I picked him up, but his head slumped back. His eyes no longer registered me, and he made no sound.

When I handed him to the vet, Pixie suffered a heart attack. I paced outside the surgery until they told me he had no deep sensation in his front paws and was paralysed. They stabilised him for further tests, but the results were devastating: Pixie was blind, he had broken his brain stem, and his lumbar spine was shattered. 

There was no chance of recovery. Pixie crossed the rainbow bridge that day.

Nothing has ever been the same since. That grief, raw, overwhelming, and life-altering, changed me forever.
It set me on the path to becoming a Pet Grief Counsellor, so no one else has to walk through their grief alone.