People often wonder why I picked to be a vet. Apart from the whole blah de blah I love animals and always have done - well that's a given.

5 years ago, we started looking after a nine year dog for my Mum's friend. He was called Silver, a lab collie cross. About 5 months after we started looking after him he jumped out of our garden and got hit by a car and they left him for dead at the side of the road. While we were out searching for him, someone I went to primary school with and his mum found him underneath a parked car at the side of the road. As we were returning home we found him and rushed him to the vets at 11pm at night. The vets on call were the other side of town, and 4 weeks after passing my test I had to drive across town with a howling fitting dog bleeding all over the back of my car. Traumatising in the least.

When we arrived at the vets, I was astounded by their attitude towards us... I expected a little more sympathy and a little more information on what was happening to our dog. As opposed to the fact they seemed miffed we'd disturbed them.

 After two weeks of bare minimal information from the vets on what was actually wrong, he got to come home. From that moment I thought I could do a better job than that. I could make him better, and I could make future owners not feel like we did.

It turned out Silver was hit down the left side and on his head, causing paralysis of the radial nerve in his left foreleg and brain damage to his skull. So for the last five years we were living with a disabled dog. He aquired a new nickname - Hop-a-long and was a happy dog.

Until about 2 months ago. Having been at vet school then coming home I noticed the deterioration more than my family. He was stiff, his back legs were going and I knew the time was coming. But he continued to be a happy dog in himself, he just needed a bit of extra help with the stairs.

On the 20th May, we had him put to sleep as everything had finally got too much. He was 14 years old, he had a good life. But hey I still had a little cry. It's always hard saying goodbye, especially when you can't be there as you're 200 miles away.