Even now, I keep hoping it isn't true, that Rob will suddenly appear and tell us that it was all some huge, Mutleyesque joke, that "reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated". But I know that this is not going to happen.
Rob, the author of MUTLEYTHEDOGSDAYOUT, died peacefully in his sleep on Friday and my heart goes out to his family and his partner Kate.
I never met Rob but we corresponded and I regarded him as a friend. His blog was outrageous, anarchic, satirical and always funny and I never understood why Rob was not snapped up as a comedy writer by the BBC or "Private Eye". I guess the answer to that is that Rob was too modest, too nice, too British to push himself. And now the mainstream media's loss is ours, for the blogosphere will be a duller place without him.
Thank you for the laughs, Rob. If I had a pint of "Old Lesbian" to hand, I would toast you with it. And say hello to Mutts* for me.
You can leave a tribute to Rob here.
*Rob's beloved pet, the real Mutley the dog, who died last year.
