She was a beautiful black Labrador full of beans and always raring to go. Then one day she began to loose weight and panted heavily even when she was resting.

I will never forget those words, Bovine Heart Disease. She was only three years old and had six months at the most.

The Vet said she would deteriorate quickly from this point on and suggested we put her to sleep. The next day the wife and I met at the Vet nary Surgeons to say goodbye. Karen waited outside; I went in and held her paw until her tail stopped wagging.

In the months that followed I did allot of soul searching because even though I walked Shandy regularly it was more of a chore than something I looked forward to after a long day at the office.

As the months went by I began to feel depressed without really knowing why? I kept it to myself and tried to sort myself out with self help books from the library. One of the books I read was about a guy who followed the Dalai Lama around for six months to try and find out what made him tick.

One of the messages in this book was to ask yourself, are you happy? Ok here we go again, I thought to myself, the guy on top of the mountain?

But the answer was surprisingly simple.

Look back at your life and ask yourself the question, what did you do which made you feel really happy but for some reason or another you stopped doing it.

I didn't have to wait long and this vexing question was answered for me when I arrived home one day to find everyone smiling at me.

"Come to the back of the garden see what we've got dad."

When I first set eyes on him my heart melted and the depression which had gripped me for so long seemed to disappear in that instant. All Puppies are cute but few of them grow up to be even cuter.

That was over four years ago and since his first unsteady walk up the street we have been inseparable. His name is Saber and he is a Siberian husky, he has many nicknames the best one being Snow Goat which my son Jason gave him. My daughter Jamie-Lee calls him Sabes and the wife has several names for him especially when he chases her cats around the house.

You only have to look into those big blue eyes and the last thing you could ever feel is depressed. I was truly blessed when this loving creature came into my life, I vowed there and then that I would be the best friend he ever had and hoped that my last dog Shandy would forgive me for not giving her the companionship she deserved.

On week days I rise at 4:30am and we are on the beach by five, at the weekend I take him to the woods where he can act like a Wolf, happy and free. The Force willing I may be on this earth for a good few years but my friend only has ten tops, so short is his life, but they will be the best ten years I can give him.

They don't call him mans best friend for nothing.