After my husband Rodney and I had been married for a while we decided that we wanted to be "childfree" and our beagles (and my horses) would therefore be our "fur family".
Rodney and I have now been breeding, showing and loving our beagles for over 25 years and in all that time there has only been that one special beagle – CH. BAYZURK FULL MOON SETTIN (aka TUBA). He is our only home bred Australian champion show dog and much more than that.
Tuba gave Rodney and me unconditional love, loyalty and happiness. He was just "special" - something which every dog owner will understand.
Rodney and I had decided we would have taxidermy done on Tuba when he died after I saw the film Hotel New Hampshire, where the family had taxidermy done on their pet dog. We talked it over with our local veterinary clinic. So it was all planned, but we thought we would have many more years with Tuba.
Tuba gave Rodney and me unconditional love, loyalty and happiness.
Unfortunately, that wasn't to be as Tuba had a medical emergency and died in ICU at Cobram Vets on 26 July, 2012, at 9 years old. The plan went into action. Cobram Vets were wonderful taking care of all the details as Rodney and I were too overcome by grief to be of much assistance.
On 21 April, 2013, Tuba came home from South Pacific Taxidermy. We were absolutely thrilled to have our boy home again and more than happy with the result. He looked perfect and would now stay that way forever.
Taxidermy is an expensive process and obviously not something that everyone would or could have considered. We were in the position to be able to do it and have never regretted it.
The reactions from the rest of our beagle pack were quite funny.
Reactions from other people is varied! Most are amazed at how real he looks. Many are horrified that we would a) do it, and b) spend that sort of money. We often forget that it is quite a strange thing to do and are amazed at the shock on peoples' faces! The reactions from the rest of our beagle pack were quite funny when Tuba first came home: they recognised him, but he didn’t have a smell so they soon came to the conclusion that for them he wasn't really Tuba.
We only chose taxidermy for us, not for anyone else. It is really a private thing between Rodney and me so reactions don’t really matter. The main thing is that we are happy to have Tuba with us forever.
I guess, in a way, it is a most extreme case of 'Puppy Love'.
Debra is a guest on tonight's episode of Insight, where we look at what science has to say about dogs' emotions and what our treatment of them says about the human psyche | 8:30pm SBS
