Rest In Peace Beautiful Boy!

On our way to Townsville we stopped for lunch at Airlie Beach. It was market day so the little beachfront park was busy.

We spent a night at Guthalungra at an overnight rest area that was big enough for the kids to have a big run around and even ride their bikes. Will and I took Marvel for a ride along a dirt track that travelled east for as long as you could see. We followed the track over a few cattle grids until we came face to face with a huge bull! Not surprisingly we backed up and returned to camp.

Once we arrived in Townsville we were unsure where to stay. We had planned on meeting up with friends from my childhood who lived in town. We are trying not to spend much on accommodation at the moment because we know it’s going to be very expensive to stay on the coast further north.

We decide to stop at Alligator Creek Roadhouse which is on Bruce Hwy about 20ks south of town.

Late that night Dan and I were in bed when Dan’s phone rang. It was an unknown number and we were puzzled as to who would be calling that late. I sat and watched Dan’s face turn from puzzlement to panic. When he hung up he told me that Marvel, our Labrador, had been hit by a car and was in really bad condition.

Throwing cloths on over our pjs we bolted out the door, locking it behind us. We didn’t know where we were going or who we were looking for. We saw a guy pulled over on the side of the road outside the camping area so ran over to him. He was obviously really angry and was checking out his car. He was the man who had hit Marvel and was not in any mood to help us.

We hit redial on the phone and the person that had called us told us Marvel was with the guy that picked him up, over at the fuel station.

Running over there we saw a ute with an open canopy in the back. As we approached the guy told us that Marvel had just died.

We were devastated! I couldn’t speak and instantly fell apart.

Steve, the guy that found him had stayed with him and comforted Marv in his last few minutes and I was so grateful that Marv hadn’t died on the side of the road all alone. We could tell that Steve as an animal lover and he was very upset for us

Steve is a local to Townsville, and told us he had a big property down the road and would bury Marv there if we liked. Once he found out we had kids, he offered to drive Marv down to the caravan so the kids could say goodbye.

Leaving Zaccy asleep, I woke Sam and Will and tried to explain what had happened. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do; explaining to my children that our beautiful dog had died. He was only four years old and was such a huge part of our family.

I took the boys out to Steve’s car and they both said goodbye, cried and gave him cuddles.

There were lots of tears that night and none of us got a lot of sleep.

The following morning, after trying to explain to Zaccy what had happened, we made arrangements with Steve to go out to his place and help him bury Marvel.

The boys picked some flowers and asked if we could have a little funeral for him. They were all very brave about it but I don’t think the reality of it all had set in with any of us.

We followed Steve’s directions which led us down a long private road, which was off the map on our GPS. We came to a set of huge gates and called Steve. A guy pulled up in his car and unlocked the gates for us. He introduced us as a friend of Steve’s and told us to follow him. We were entering a gated community and for a moment I had a thought that we were entering some sort of strange commune.

We followed Les to Steve’s property and they explained that the property is an old fishing village. It is a gated community and over the past few years has grown from a small holiday village to a small town with over a hundred permanent residents.

It was beautiful! Surrounded by mountains and set alongside the Cleveland River, it is over 140 hectares of private land. The residential part of the estate had a strange feel to it. Almost like a cross between a small fishing village and Pleasantville!

At the back of Steve’s property there was a row of palm trees backing onto a wetlands area. It was below these palm trees that Steve had dug a big hole for Marvel. Steve had wrapped Marvel in a sheet and laid him in the grave.

We all said a quiet few words of goodbye to our dog, then Steve used this digger to fill in the grave.

It was such a sad moment but a lovely way of saying goodbye to our friend. He is now buried in a beautiful part of a Townsville under a palm tree. Steve said that he thought the palm was appropriate because we had come to Far North Queensland to visit the tropics.

We then went inside for a cuppa and to get to know Steve and Les a bit better. They are fantastic blokes and we can’t get over their generosity. We are so lucky that Steve was driving down that road in the middle of the night. We are blown away by how kind and caring he has been to us, complete strangers.

We decided to check into a caravan park in Townsville for a few days We spent the next week in  a bit of a trance. We were all mourning the loss of Marvel but were still trying to enjoy our visit to Townsville.

We spent a lot of time going for walks and sitting quietly talking that week. It was very hard to see other dogs and we would usually end up in tears. I bumped into one lady walking her young golden lab, and had to explain to her why I was a blubbering mess while I patted her dog. She was extremely understanding and let me sit on the ground and play with him for a long time.

We did eventually catch up with my childhood friend Garth, his partner Amy and their little boy Lucas.  I had not met Amy until we went to their house for dinner one night, and we instantly hit it off! The boys loved playing with Lucas and we all had a really good night.

Garth has to travel to Cairns in a couple of weeks for work and he, Amy and Lucas are staying in a caravan park there. We are hoping to work it out so we will be there at the same time.

We went to the Townsville Marine Park, Reef HQ for the day and went on a tour of the Turtle Hospital, where they rescue sick and injured turtle. With the help of the local veterinary university, the turtles are nursed back to health and released back into the ocean.

 

Leaving Townsville felt so wrong. We were leaving a part of our family back there and it was incredibly sad. Before we left we paid one last visit to Steve. The boys gave him letters and pictures that they drew for him, and we gave him a thank you present. I cannot describe how grateful we are for everything that Steve and his friends did for us that week. Thanks to them they made a horrible event a little bit more bearable.

The property where Marvel is burried.

 

Rest in peace our beautiful Fluppy Dog, Boofa, Marvellis, Marvel James Ellis..... you were such a special dog and will be so missed xxx