February 2026

I publish the Weekend Reads every Saturday religiously, no matter what, and I was halfway through writing about how terrible these times are and what we must do about it when I took a break to walk our dog, Freddy. On that walk, he collapsed, and later that evening, he was gone. Fluid around the heart. I like to think he gave so much love all his life that his heart finally gave out. That idea gives me comfort, and really, while the speed of events that evening shocked us, I’m glad it wasn’t a long, painful death. He was happy and bouncy until that final moment. As you can imagine, we are devastated. He was such a beautiful dog, and before him, I was never a dog person. Cats have always been my thing. Many here will have gone through this experience themselves, and you know how hard it is to say goodbye to a being that gives you complete and unconditional love. You know the hole they leave behind too. Many won’t understand this at all, and I appreciate that too. As the days follow, we are in the space of recognizing the enormous void he’s leaving in our lives, and there’s no way to fill it, other than by replacing him, something we will not do. This is mainly from a sustainability perspective, as we are committed to reducing our impact on the planet in every way we can, and the pet industry has a HUGE impact. Perhaps we’ll rescue a dog one day, I don’t know. My husband asked straight away if we should get another dog, but it’s definitely not a thought I can entertain at all right now. But what this whole experience really did for me is bring life in really close. To family, to our beloved Freddy, making sure he is not in pain, and to love – pure, genuine, heart-expanding love. We had to get our boys to the vet immediately. Our eldest son is doing National Service in Singapore, and we are so grateful he was able to get emergency leave to be with us. Our youngest son is in the final throes of his IB, and he had to submit an important essay that evening. He got it in and they both made it on time. Steve and I had been there for hours, trying to make the right decision for Freddy, but the boys needed to be part of that decision too. He is a massive part of their life story to this point. It was incredibly challenging for all of us, but we all stayed until the end. No one walking out because they couldn’t cope. I’m so proud of our boys for their courage. It wasn’t easy to stand witness, but Freddy needed us and we all answered the call. Now we are grieving, but we are also parents helping our sons grieve their first big loss. It’s hard, it’s painful, but it’s all pure love. For me, this is what matters. It’s the only thing that matters. Sometimes we need to bring our life in close, to see the beauty that is around us, because when we look wider, the ugliness can be all consuming, but worse, it makes us darker too. My boys asked me what my religion is after Freddy passed. I said for me, there is only one religion – to be kind, always kind, even when everywhere else we see the darkness rising. The challenge today is so many don’t even realise they are slipping into it, becoming the very darkness they are resisting. If we give in to the darkness, we will be lost. My advice is: get close. Focus on your family and community. Save something you love. Contribute to making your community resilient for the coming climate impacts. Take care of those who need it. Most importantly, have compassion for everyone, because these times are hard. However, please remember, compassion is an action, not a feeling, so you need to do something too. Deep empathy is also required right now, and that is putting yourself in another’s shoes. For many what you’ll see is fear, deep deep fear for the future. Can you help alleviate that fear? Can you be gentle, can you be kind? I’m sure the Weekend Reads will be back next week. It’s my way I’m doing my part – focusing on education – so I ask you, what is your part and are you doing it? If not, can you start, driven by a deep love for your fellow humans and all life on this planet? If we want to create the future we all want, every single one of us has a role to play, and it’s time to get going.  RIP The Fredster! You were AWESOME!! Cheers Andrea