----- Original Message -----

From: Maud & Torsti

To: working-gundog@web.whc.net

Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 3:34 AM

Subject: [working-gundog] We remember...

....Foxy! She found and flushed her last woodcock yesterday morning. Later that day she was investigated at the animal hospital in Uppsala where she was operated for a very unusual tumour some 3 - 4 years ago. The tumour had slowly come back, we noticed it some time around new year, and had with sadness watch the development. At the hospital they thought that it is the proper time to put her away now that the tumour does not cause any significant pain to her yet. She came to be 13 years and 10 months old. The last time she showed the world her enourmous ability was last winter on the Gotland island. Maud had went there to trial Briz and afterwards Foxy was given a run on some large fields. She put up a veeery wide bare mountain search and as she already was deaf she was impossible to handle. Military stragedy was used to finally catch her, since she did not find any birds so she could have been leashed on point. 3 or 4 persons pushed her into a corner of the field and caught her there. Everybody admired this 13 years old warriors search and stamina. Everybody also bet that she would be very stiff next morning, propably Maud would have to carry her out to have a pee. They were wrong. Next morning Foxy showed no pain or stiffness but was ready to clear the next field! That is how she is remembered by those who saw her at some stage of her life, she was always the same. Never ever give up, the bird might be just beyound the next mountain ridge!

 

I will remember her mostly for her mentality and gentleness. Never during her lifetime did she start a fight but stopped many would be fights just by her self confidence and security in social situationes.  She was a lesson in good mentality and we will continue to refer to her in our obedience classes.

 

Later I will write more about her and the late Springer at Torsti's corner, and the great influence they had on our life's. Those two dogs showed us a new world, a world we had not known about before them, and they opened doors for us that otherwise would have stayed closed for us. May they rest in peace!

 

Torsti

Borta Med Vindens Kennel
"Ask not what your dog can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your dog."
www.rospigan.net

----- Original Message -----

From: Maud & Torsti

To: working-gundog@web.whc.net

Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 11:31 AM

Subject: Re: [working-gundog] We remember...

>>>I feel Your Pain Torsti! Been there,

Ron>><

 

Thank you folks for all your nice words! Reading them makes me to create a short-circuit in the key-bord due the salty tears falling on it ))

 

There is, at least for me, a particular point in Ron's comment: One of the few times I can really honestly and with 100% certainty say that I sympathize with someone else, even a totally strange person, is when I hear that they have lost their dog!

 

Everything must come to an end and sorrow is only one result of what had to happen. There is a little happines also in it. Foxy was after all very old and a bit senile. She had also gone very soft and wanted to be with me all the time. My conclusion was that she felt that she was not in her former powers anymore and hence might have felt anxious from time to time. It was a pain for me to go to work and leave her for a week and when I came back she was so happy so she did not know how to express it. Even if she was fit for her age she had become old in her body and it showed. Despite of the tumour that came back I am happy that she lived to a very mature age for a dog. Our first dog was put away at 4 years of age due to bad mentality and the second one, Springer, at 10 years for medical reasons. I was a bit disappointed then because I wanted to see a dog to age and see how they change in mentaltiy and perhaps personality. I also thought that putting them away due to a mature age would be, if not easier at least more "justified" and "fair" than having to put them down due to some nasty disease.

So even if the tumour did catch up with Foxy's age it would have been about the right time to put her away due to age only. Without the tumour she might have lived another year but what kind of life would that have been???

 

All in all I am in a strange way happy for Foxy now. She had a good life with us, we gave her all we could afford and then some more. We had the courage to spare her from the last months or year of pain and misery but to end her career in a dignified way. They gave her the last favour at the animal hospital in very professional manner that really paid tribute to a true Dame!

 

Now Foxy's daughter Briz must get used to being the top gun in the house. I guess it takes a while for her to understand her new role, we will see. She is a different kettle of fish compared to Foxy and even if we love her very much I doubt we will never give her the title Dame )

 

In the distant future, sometimes after next new year, there is a still unborn puppy waiting for us very far north in Sweden. Dogs from this ES line are as easy to train as spaniels and being a  self-tormentor I am not sure that I like it but it was Maud's decision. Maybe I could compensate for the handicap by finding a spaniel that is difficult to train )

 

Torsti

Borta Med Vindens Kennel
"Ask not what your dog can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your dog."
www.rospigan.net