Being a huge dog love myself, this story brought a tear to my eye. This is perhaps the hardest thing to do and having done it a number of times, I can never forget how it feels.
When the end finally came, Mark Woods knew exactly what he needed to do for his beloved whippet named Walnut.
They would take one last walk along Walnut’s favorite beach.
Woods, who lives in Cornwall, England, told his Facebook friends the sad news on Nov. 8.
“Sadly I am having to have Walnut euthanized on Saturday 12th November and so we will be having a last walk together on his beloved Porth Beach at 9.30am,” Woods wrote.
“I would love it if dog lovers/owners and friends would join us for a celebration of Walnut on his favourite Porth Beach. He has had an incredible life and having reached the grand age of 18 is ready for his final sleep.”
He issued the invitation with the hashtag #WalkWithWalnut.
And then hundreds of people, some with their own dogs, showed up on the beach to say goodbye to Walnut.
Walnut came into Woods’ life 18 years ago. Man and dog were fast best friends.
“I was searching for some emotional direction at that time of my life, as I was really not too great at holding down relationships,” Woods, 53, told the Today show.
They spent a lot of time together — at Woods’ place of business, in London parks and walking on the beach where Walnut loved “getting his feet wet and having his toes in the sand,” Woods told Today.
He was “flabbergasted” by the crowd of people who answered his invitation for the sendoff, he told London’s Telegraph.
Because Walnut was no longer able to stand or walk, Woods carried him most of the way, bundled in a blanket on a gray, drizzly day. But the tired pup was able to play for a while with some of the dogs who had come to visit.
“He was very calm and seemed happy to me,” said Woods, “but he also looked so very tired and I believe ready for his final walk to heaven.”
Walnut’s family and the Woods’ other three whippets — Monty, Nelson and Charlie — were in the room when he took his last breath hours later.
“He went very quickly and in my arms,” Woods wrote on Facebook.
Walnut might be gone, but his memory could live on in more than just Twitter and Facebook posts and videos, some of which have now gone viral.
People are raising money to build a statue in the beach town where Walnut took his last walk.
“We feel that as it was a huge show of emotion … that a permanent statue should be erected of Walnut at the beach to remember not only the event, but the way the community united worldwide for such a hard event for Mark and his family,” organizer Jon Goodman of Newquay, England, told Cornwall Live.
“We believe that the statue will not only be a place to remember Walnut, but a place to remember all pets.”
The organizers want to also plan an annual “Walnut Walk” in his memory. They hope to have the statue ready for unveiling on the first Remembrance Saturday, Nov. 12, 2017.