Not single spies

Our beloved Alice died yesterday.

We thought the day would be tinged with sadness as we were pretty sure it was to be Jack Dawson's last race. As Jack cantered to post at Stratford, John received a phone call giving him the most terrible news, that Alice had been hit by a car on the Exning Road and killed.

I blame myself completely for her death. I've been looking at ways to contain her within the yard and recently thought about buying the invisible fencing with shock collars to keep her in. But thinking is not enough and she's gone. She loved to escape and wander around town and was known by just about everyone but I always feared this would happen. I can't tell you how much I wish I'd acted sooner.

Jack has been retired after his creditable run which neither John or I were able to watch. He will go to live with Paul and Margaret and they plan to do a bit of cross-country with him. He'll love it but we'll miss him terribly, just as we do Alice. If there's one consolation, it is that we bought yet another of Jack's half-sisters, by Catcher In The Rye, at Fairyhouse this week and she is now grazing happily out the back.

I've had some really lovely evenings out walking this summer with Alice, around Moulton Paddocks with Aisling and her dogs, and this week on the heath with Dawn, Stan and Panto. She's looked so well this year, even though she was nearly 11. Needless to say, John is absolutely distraught and it will take some time to patch up the gaping hole she leaves in the yard. We've buried her here at home, just by the paddocks, so she will always be a part of the place.