Letter to Editor, Dog Hit & Run

My son and I planned a holiday to visit family in Australia. 

My daughter was going to dog sit then decided to come with us.

I asked an old friend to have Bloom and he agreed as he had looked after Bloom for us before. 

5 days before our holiday my friend  changed his mind.

We didn’t like the thought of boarding kennels. 

I asked around my friends who they used to look after their dogs. 

One friend came forward with a lady in Pinged who home boards.

I contacted her and an arrangement was made to have Bloom. 

We dropped Bloom off in good faith that she would care for him like her own.

Sadly we received a call from a stranger at 6.30am one morning to say he had found our dog deceased on the side of the road with various pieces of a car bumper.

My son called his friend to collect Bloom and take him to the vets for us.

The kind gentleman who found Bloom stayed with him until my sons friend arrived  

My son and I were totally devastated and felt so helpless so far away from home.

At this point we had not heard from the dog boarder.

My daughter messaged her asking her to contact us regarding Bloom. 

My daughter did not tell her that Bloom was dead.

We received a message back saying Bloom was missing from 4pm the previous day.

Her family were out looking for him.

So we realised Bloom had been missing for at least 15 hours and she had not informed us.

My friends in the Kidwelly area jumped onto social media and started searching all the local sites to find various people putting up sightings of Bloom. 

It turned out the dog boarder had gone away on holiday while she was supposed to be looking after Bloom and left him with her son.

This was not discussed when we dropped Bloom off with her and we certainly would not have agreed to it.

We have had no information as to why we were not contacted immediately so that we could have got all our friends looking for him.

We will never know if he could have been found in those lost 15 hours!

Something we will always have to live with. 

The person who hit Bloom and killed him just drove off and left him in the road. 

We would like to highlight the following points it is illegal to not inform the police when hitting a dog.

And for pet owners to check that pet sitters/boarders are registered with the council and have insurance. 

I naïvely didn’t and she wasn’t. 

We rescued Bloom 8 years ago, a timid rescue, and he slowly turned into a loving, sweet soul.

He was full of life and adventure. 

He enjoyed agility and flyball. 

He had a lovely bond with my son they enjoyed hiking weekends away and Canicross. 

And planning new adventures and experiences together. 

My son and I planned a holiday together, but a week before we went, our pet sitter let us down. 

I asked around my friends for recommendations, and a pet boarder was suggested who I contacted. 

We now urge other pet owners when looking for pet sitters or boarders to check that they are insured and registered with the council.

Ask lots of questions.

Where will your dog be during the day, night, and secure area to exercise and walks.

Will their dog be left alone for long periods or left with anyone else.

Don’t be afraid to dig deep. Your dogs safety depends on it.

I mention this as the pet boarder left our dog and went on holiday without informing us of this beforehand. 

 We received every dog owners nightmare a devastating call from a man to say he had found our beloved Bloom dead in the road!

We were totally confused and shattered at this point as we believed Bloom to be safe and cared for.

We had not heard anything from the pet boarder that Bloom was missing. 

Our friends in the Kidwelly area, with quick and caring actions, jumped onto social media and started to piece together what had happened. 

There were several confirmed sightings of Bloom at 4 pm. on the 19th of March on Pinged Road.

So it soon became clear to us that Bloom had been missing for 15 hours before the heartbreaking news came in.

Obviously, we will never really know what happened, but my son and I will always have the guilt that in those 15 hours, all of our friends could have been looking for Bloom and possibly found him if only the pet boarder had informed us straight away. 

This could have had a different outcome, but now we will never know. 

This will haunt us forever!

We want to raise awareness that if you hit a dog, it has to be reported to the police.

We understand that if Bloom ran out in front of the car, it was possibly an accident that couldn’t have been avoided. 

But to leave him in the road was heartless and cruel and absolutely heartbreaking for us when we were the other side of the world where we felt helpless and broken.

There was a lack of human decency and respect for Blooms life.

Bloom wore a collar with our numbers on and was micro chipped. If the driver couldn’t face calling us, they could have taken him to the vet so they could have contacted us.

The driver of the car and the pet boarder have no idea of the impact this has had on our family. Our home is empty and quiet now. The guilt heartbreak and silence are unbearable.  

This has been so hard to come to terms with, while the pet boarder and car driver carry on with their lives and have forgotten about Bloom our lives are shattered.

We are not looking to punish the driver as the events leading up to this were not their fault, but we would appreciate the driver coming forward with an explanation of what happened. 

So we can get an understanding of the events that led up to his death.

His last moments. 

And to get some sort of peace.

If the driver would like to talk to me in confidence, there is a phone number on Blooms poster at the scene of the crash.

We would like to thank the man who found Bloom and stayed with him, who gathered all the car parts up.

My sons friend who went to get Bloom and took him to the vet. 

The experts that came forward and identified the car.

The lady that scoured social media and goggle earth images looking for the car that matched the description. 

There has been overwhelming support from the local community.

This has been so comforting to us.

We just want Blooms story to prevent another family from suffering the same sort of loss.

Bloom, you were so loved and always will be.

Rip sweet boy xx