Did Endal touch your life?

Have you got something you'd like to say about Endal?
We'd like to collate tributes from as many people as possible.
Please either email me (beverley@dogstodaymagazine.co.uk) or post in the comments section here so all can see. Here's the tribute in today's Daily Mail.

Allen has just emailed me this:

Having just completed the Endal book, I had the unique and wonderful opportunity to explore the past in such detail. We all laughed at the things we had done. Endal was invited to open a school, a hydrotherapy centre, help launch Crufts and even open a wheelchair accessible loo!

The list rolls on... but if I was to think of the most important thing Endal has opened over his 13 years it has to be opening so many people's minds to how important and valuable dogs are in our lives..well....it really is job well done my faithful Endal.
I still can't pinpoint what I did to deserve Endal's unconditional love and devotion... I have been truly blessed. But now I realise that Endal was never only my dog - he was everyone's and the world truly is a sadder place today for his passing.

His greatest legacy has to be bringing me back to my family and also mentoring faithful little EJ (Endal Junior)too. EJ is already punching above his weight and able to do 90% of what Endal was capable of, but it would not have been possible if Endal had not been here to teach him. The two were as one and I would be being selfish to think my sense and feeling of loss was the greatest because Ikea and EJ dearly miss him too..the three musketeers are now two.

I had been given the opportunity yesterday morning to tell Endal how much I love him and to thank him for all he has done for me these last 12 years and that is possibly the most important and significant moment of our relationship. He went peacefully in my lap surrounded by those that loved him most, much loved and now much missed.

I first met Allen, Sandra and Endal in 1999 and I have to say watching their story unfold has been a huge honour. Everywhere Allen went this dog was making someone smile.
Has there ever been a dog so universally loved? A more famous dog? A better role model for the species? A dog that touched so many people?
This was a dog that even counted the Queen as one of his fans, she asked after his health only a few weeks ago.
Endal inspired people to see that the love of a good dog could change the world.
Even now he's gone, he'll still be doing it.
Allen knows how it feels to come back to your family changed, to not be the person everyone was expecting. The unconditional love Endal gave made Allen accept himself and put his whole family back together.
Allen had felt broken and purposeless.
Endal made Allen not just feel useful once more, he made him capable of almost anything - made him reach for the stars. No longer the disabled person in the room - often the most able to change things.
Over the years Allen and Endal visited many badly injured troops, often extremely physically disfigured and deeply depressed. Allen explained to me that due to medical advances people are now surviving really devastating injuries, but it is so hard for everyone to accept these once handsome able men who come home so terribly damaged.
Allen saw that Endal didn't discriminate and that love was often a scarce commodity for broken men like he had once been.
This experience inspired Allen to launch Hounds for Heroes.
This new charity will mean that the Endal legacy will carry on - that a little bit of that Endal magic can be brought into these returning troops lives. Everyone needs a friend, to make waking up each morning something to look forward to rather than dread. Who could not be moved by a Labrador pup's enthusiasm for life?
The idea is for a dog that will go down the pub with you as well as pick up your keys if you drop them. If your battle scars makes it hard for even your own mother to look at you without crying - it is so powerful to have a dog that just sees the person inside. A dog to love you and remind others that there is still a real person inside - even if it wasn't the one who went to war.
A dog to spread some much needed joy, love and hope.
These next few days will be especially hard for the Parton family. There's no hurrying the tears that need to fall, Endal didn't touch their lives lightly - he leaves a massive gap.
I'm sure Ikea and EJ will be trying to lick away the sadness and will be a huge comfort.
Endal will never be forgotten.
He changed the world and what he started should never stop.



The Endal Sky Real Lives Documentary repeats frequently, all the more poignant now we know he's gone. After it airs there is now a small tribute to mark Endal's passing.
Endal the movie is now in production and Allen writes a monthly column in Dogs Today each month.
Hounds for Heroes website is http://www.houndsforheroes.com/ - but the two other charities that Endal was closely associated with (apart obviously from Canine Partners) were Labrador Rescue and Dog Theft Action.