A Notable Notch on the Calendar.

I remembered today that 4^th October is the anniversary of the death of my beloved collie dog, Em. I loved her dearly, and after the vet had come out to the house to deliver the coup de grace, I went out for a walk alone for the first time since she’d entered my life.

I was gripped by a sense that this was a pivotal point tipping my life onto a profoundly different track. My two cats had both died during the previous eleven months, and the third, most heart-breaking, death seemed significant. The following May my wife and I separated. In July I walked out of my safe office job and never went back. The following year I sold the house – the most favourite of all the nine I’d lived in up to that point – and moved into rented accommodation.

A period of turbulence and associated stress took hold in earnest, and the road it led onto has been quite the rollercoaster ride ever since. But I’ve learned a lot and I wouldn’t have had it any different.

And it all began on October 4^th, and I just felt like mentioning it.