Oh dear! My gorgeous, handsome Marmaduke died this morning and I’m quite devastated. I’ve never felt like this about a pet before. I can only assume that he was hit by a car. We live on a 30 mile an hour road. Our neighbours borrowed a police radar once and clocked up drivers going at 65. I’ve seen bikes going faster.

I’ve buried a lot of pets in my time but today has been the worst. All the others have died of old age or sickness. You have time to come to terms with death like that, but this was so sudden.

My neighbours found him on their driveway and brought him round wrapped in a towel. I couldn’t quite take it in. I didn’t want to take it in.

Marmaduke was a one in a million. He wasn’t very bright but he was a wonderful companion. When he was young he curled up behind me as I worked, until he became too big to fit on the chair. He would on the bed in the mornings, watching, waiting for me to wake up, then he’d creep up close until we were touching noses.

He was so vocal, always miaoued to say hello and thanks. Yes, he would say thank you too! We could spend hours just staring at each other, just being in each other’s company.

Working from home, he was my daily companion for 10 years. Now I’ll have to trawl through this site and alter all the references to him. On Friday, I walked into a classroom and there was a picture of me and Marmaduke, from my website, projected on the smartboard. I don’t want to take the picture off, but I don’t know that I want that to happen again. Children who’ve been through my sitee always ask me about him.

I knew all his little places. I knew where to find him at different times of day.

I’ll miss him dreadfully.