Sprout loved chasing him around the yard (and trying to brush him with a broom).

Bubba Sparkle would not have had a clue what he was, but loved having a furry, woolly creature to pat I think.

Hubby took charge of the feedings and last night was no different. He came home from work - made up the milk and headed outside to feed Bruce. Only this time, he came back inside and said,

"Well, we won't need to feed Bruce anymore."

I just thought he meant that he was finicky with the milk so we wouldn't need to bother giving it to him anymore cos he's weaned himself off of it. But I asked anyway,

"Why's that hun?"

"Cos, he's broken his leg!"

I must have looked at him blankly because he added,

"I'm gonna have to go and put him down."

THUD.

My heart dropped.

I must have looked like I was going to cry cos hubby looked at me and calmly said,

"He's in pain and it's far up his leg, it's dangling".

I cried.

Then all the questions of why and isn't there something we could do. Hubby called a vet up the road and we ended up taking Bruce to her to check him out. But the verdict wasn't good.

After discussion, we thought Bruce might be able to handle only three legs cos he seemed to walk on them fine and he wasn't bleating out in pain at all so we kept him in a small enclosure to limit any running to see if he would cope, just for the night. By morning, we had decided that he wasn't going to cope with the injury. He hadn't sat down all night and he seemed a bit more distressed we think.

So...

He was sent off to animal heaven.

And that ended one of our 'every night' activities and left a part of our yard - and hearts - a little empty.

Pets just have a way of creeping into your heart and making life just that little bit more beautiful and fun (most of the time- hehe).

But time passes and we move on, and we will do that knowing Bruce is way better off; out of any misery and at peace!

RIP Bruce.

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna