Goodbye to Deli
Our beautiful, sweet, social and mellow Smooth Collie Deli (Honey Melon Fay Fidelia) had to be put to sleep on Friday the 20th of February 2026. In end January she had to be hospitalised in Gothenburg. The blood results and ultrasound showed problems with her gallbladder and that her liver values were too high. We got her back home with medication to help against her gallbladder problems and for three weeks that seemed to help. However, by the mid of last week she got sick again and wouldn’t eat. This was so unusual for Deli, who would otherwise eat anything, so I immediately suspected something was seriously wrong. I booked time at my Danish veterinarian and went straight to Denmark. Here new blood tests showed that her liver had stopped working and that ascites was starting to build up in her stomach. Thus, nothing to do but put her to sleep right away. Again, I have to praise my veterinarians at Fjordens Dyrlæger in Denmark whom I have used for the past 20 years. They do it so well and with dignity! It is horribly sad to put a dog to sleep but it is never traumatic when I do it at their place. Plus, my dogs are so used to coming there, so they are never stressed. Jörfi was there during the whole process. She hasn’t been looking for Deli since then although you can feel she is affected, too. My mother’s cats kept her good company in the first days after Deli’s departure to dog heaven. We got 13 magical years and one month in the fantastic company of Deli, such a sweetheart! She is now the oldest Smooth Collie we have had, because our Glitnir ‘only’ reached exactly 13 years. We have to thank Aila Hartikainen at kennel Honey Melon in Finland for selling us this dog. Aila told me from the beginning that there was something special about Deli and that she would have made a good candidate for a service dog with her fantastic temperament and working attitude. She was absolutely right, Deli was one in a lifetime kind of dog!
