“I had been treating the dog for a couple of weeks.” Eoghan explains. “There was a hospice bed in the front room by the fire where the owner was unfortunately coming towards the end of his own life. When the owner died his wife called me. 

“The dog had taken a turn for the worse and I had to go up and put the dog to sleep on the same day. It’s like the old saying goes, ‘he died of a broken heart’. I think there was definitely a spiritual dimension to it. When the dog’s owner died, he gave up and left the world on the same day.”

Where euthanasia is concerned, Eoghan says he is glad to be able to offer families a chance to say goodbye to their pets at home.

“It’s difficult to think of pets spending their last moments of life being bundled into the back of the car and brought to a clinic. This way they can die at home by the fire in a familiar environment. Every euthanasia I do is emotional. You can’t overlook a life ending. Each life is as important as the next. 

“I have to detach myself a little. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to do my job properly. I’ll often have a person on their hands and knees in front of me bawling crying like you’ve never seen anyone cry before. An hour later I’ll be giving a puppy a vaccination. You have to be able to manage it.”

He said that every pet owner grieves differently.

“I arrange for the cremation of the dog afterwards once they are ready. However, a few weeks ago I was with people who said they weren’t ready for me to take the dog away. They wanted to have one more night together. I told them I could come back the next day.”

And he said people are always keen to make their pets’ final days special.

“They’ll give them all the things they weren’t able to have before. Ice cream is very popular. Sometimes they’ll be given a steak. Often, people will ring me up and ask if they are allowed to eat chocolate the day before they are put to sleep. My answer is always the same – lash it into them! 

The most important thing in the world is to make their last days together really special.

And do dogs know when the end is near? Eoghan says he believes so.

“I’ve worked in clinics for years and there are some dogs who can sense it. They are in the car and are trembling. I have a memory of this beautiful black labrador in the waiting room of a clinic I worked in. The dog’s brakes were on. I could just see his owner slowly pulling him down the corridor. 

“You are trying to make the dog’s last moments as special as possible but that’s difficult to do in a place where they are fearful. All the noises, smells, the whole experience in general is very unfamiliar to them. 

“In contrast, at home the dog is totally relaxed. I usually give them an injection of morphine and valium first so they feel really euphoric and deeply relaxed. The animal doesn’t even know what’s happening. They just sail away. It’s basically an anaesthetic. People can cry their eyes out as much as they want at home. It’s just a far nicer experience.”