spring

On the subject of mating (which seems to be the unavoidable topic of choice for the time being), spring has arrived in my garden. Clearly we are following the pagan calendar around here. The frogs certainly are, anyway.

We have had a few days minutes of warm, sunny weather and the frogs are celebrating with their annual gathering in our small pond. In a couple of days I expect the surface of the water will be roiling and eventually the frogs will all return from wherever it is they come from, leaving masses of spawn behind. After that we will have a few more days' hard frost - enough to re-freeze the surface of the pond, and when that melts it will officially be spring.

Have I been paying close attention to the weather forecast? No, I usually don't. But over the half-dozen years we've been living in this house, I know that somehow the frogs know exactly when the last hard frost of the year will be. You can plan your calendar around them - and they're early this year.

And where is it they all come from, anyway? Perhaps the same 100 go around the whole village populating every pond with spawn and then split up to return to their normal homes. We usually have a few resident frogs keeping the newts company. It's quite amazing that we don't witness what must be a mass migration as they arrive and depart each spring.

And what's the Taika update today? Well, Kate says she seems to think she's eating for at least 7. But, frankly, that's not unusual, so don't let that get your hopes up.

old wives' tales

A friend and I were chatting the other day about her puppies and my hoped-for puppies (hereinafter to be referred to as HF puppies - at least until things have been confirmed one way or the other). She knows a thing or 2 about dogs, my friend, so when she asked whether Taika drooled a lot during the mating, I didn't laugh. As a matter of fact, she did, said I. As a matter of fact, Kate came away from each mating with a very wet knee/arm/hand from where she squatted holding Taika still. Apparently, according to my friend, that's a very good sign that the mating will be successful.

Now, don't ask me. I have no idea whether that is biological fact or just one of those stories breeders tell. But I know what I reckon. And I have to say it sure doesn't sound like anything scientific.

The other 'very good sign' I've heard about is when a bitch squeals, screams, howls - or makes any of those embarrassing loud noises you really wish they wouldn't - during mating. Did Taika do this? Yup.

Neka neither drooled nor squawked during her successful matings. She did, however, grunt in a quite amusing way the whole time and Keskiyo threw up during one of his ties that led to a litter of puppies. And I haven't heard any anecdotes to support my theory, but I'd bet there have been bitches who did drool and howl and yet did not end up in whelp at the end of it.

So, what I'm saying is, we won't know anything until the scan.

Unless, of course, Taika has been having a bit of morning sickness...? Unlikely. Nothing would put that girl off her food. But I will ask.

This waiting & wondering - tough, no?

As for the drooling = puppies on the way theory, far be it from me to doubt the wisdom of those with far more experience than I. I'm not one of those who doesn't believe stuff without solid, tangible proof. Frankly, I believe in lots of things that others say have not been proven. Just because it sounds unlikely doesn't mean it is unlikely and just because no one can identify a link between drooling and having puppies doesn't mean there isn't one.

As in so many things, we shall simply have to wait and see.

For your visual pleasure, here is an admittedly poor shot of Taika playing with her boyfriend.

showdog returns

We had quite a hectic weekend. Or, should I say, I had one.

First, I zipped into the Newton Abbot show at the Matford Centre in Exeter bright & early to set up my stuff in a convenient place. I knew that by the time I finished with Neka's check up at the vet and got back to the show it would be heaving and I would struggle to even get through the door.

Next stop, vet, where Neka was given the all-clear. The second blood test revealed she did indeed have pancreatitis and we were lucky because one of the dogs who had been inflicted with it the previous weekend had died. She may or may not ever have another episode, but we'll take small steps in an effort to avoid a repeat performance.

At the moment we feed our dogs a mixture of Arden Grange or Purina Pro Plan complete and raw meat and vegetables. Because pancreatitis can be triggered by high fat or high protein content in the diet, we'll be looking at quality complete foods with a lower fat content for Neka. And from now on, no more raw. She'll be very disappointed with this news, as she is very fond indeed of her raw meals. Perhaps just an occasional chicken wing won't hurt.

Did I say in my last post that I was planning to pop into the show after our vet appointment if I had time? Well, I arrived there shortly after 8am to set up, returned by 10am. Yup, we had plenty of time. More than plenty, in fact. We finally got home at 4:45pm. Phew, long day!

But it was worth it. We had two big classes of Finnish Lapphunds entered but unfortunately with many absent, there was only Keskiyo and his half-sister Taru in attendance. Under judge Krystian Greenland Keskiyo got Best of Breed and then we had a long wait for the group judging. Again, I didn't regret hanging around for hours because Keskiyo won 2nd in the Pastoral Group. I really felt the judge wanted him to win the group, and he gave us every opportunity by getting us to move and move and move again. However, after the long day Keskiyo was a bit tired and as it was his first show in a very long time, he was out of practice, so he wasn't his usual sparkling self by then. Nonethless, we're certainly not complaining about coming 2nd.

It was a fitting result for my little showdog's return to the ring after his stint in semi-retirement! We've got a couple more open shows over the next few weeks to take advantage of him looking so nice at the moment.














Photo by Farlap

This was the photo I was hoping to use in our Yearbook this year. However, something went haywire with my order and so it didn't arrive in time and I ended up having to use (after some Photoshop-ing to try and improve the perspective) the pic I took myself. That should be interesting.

outtakes

Frankly, the title of this post could apply to just about any on which I post photographs that I've had anything to do with, whether behind the camera or in front of it. Any attempt at photography on my part results in far more outtakes than useful shots. In fact, I'm lucky to get even one useful shot at any time. But, perhaps that's true of everyone at least some of the time.

Except, perhaps, Kate Moss. But then again, even she has been the subject of photos that she had rather never saw the light of day.

You may or may not know that I'm the treasurer of the Southern Finnish Lapphund Society. As such, one of my tasks is to produce a little report of the year to be printed in our Yearbook. By far the most onerous job, though, is to get a photograph of myself to go with the report.

As if it wasn't difficult enough to get a photo of the dogs to go into the book! And I've wailed about that very thing here on this blog on more than one occasion. But a photo of myself is just too much.

Last year Pia took one of me with then-puppy Maija on my lap when we were at the Molesey xmas Lappy walk in Surrey. Unknown to me, she bunged it into the book and when I got my copy & opened it up, there we were. What a fright! I do usually try to stay away from the pointy end of cameras.

However, a pic is fair enough, I suppose. This year I thought I'd better seize control and so I sent Pia a photo that I actually like. You can't really see my face, and I'm dressed up like the Michelin man because it was so cold. However, I'm in my favorite place (on the beach) with a bunch of Lappies around me - Neka and various of her offspring. This photo, in fact. Unfortunately I neglected to check the size of the file and when printed it would apparently come out about 2cm high. Okay, so not quite large enough.

So out Jay & I went this morning straight after coffee and before doing anything less important like work, etc. Trying to get a photo - not only of me looking presentable enough to go into a book and so be committed to the annals of history for all eternity (yeesh!), but also with the dogs all facing the camera. Or all in the same direction, at least.

Here are a couple of outtakes.

First, trying to get everyone to at least sit.













Oops, our neighbour walked by.












As you can see, Neka is doing well. Thanks to everyone for asking. In fact, she has even improved throughout the day and I'd say she's totally back to her old self tonight. She had a great time on her walk this afternoon and was zooming through the woods with Maija as if nothing had ever happened. She has her checkup tomorrow morning and, if there's time after that, I'm going to pop into a local open show with Keskiyo for a little pre-Crufts practice... just in case Taika decides I can go and waits until the weekend after to have her puppies. Hoped for puppies, that is. Obviously.

insurance

What a tough few days it's been in this house. On Monday morning I went downstairs to discover that Neka had been throwing up. Now, it has to be said that this is certainly far from an unusual occurrence. Our dogs vomit on an unfortunately regular basis - they drink too much water too fast, up it comes - they've been running around playing and swallow a load of fur, up it comes - swallowed a bit of chewed up stick, up it comes - ate their dinner too fast, up it comes (and then disappears back down again just as quickly). So throwing up in itself never worries me. I cleaned up and then took Neka out for her morning ablutions.

Normal wee, normal poo - normal, normal, normal. Then as we were strolling down the park she started to vomit again and began to look distinctly unwell. Then she lay on the frosty grass and didn't want to get up (Does that sound familiar to long-time readers? I wasn't panicking like I was this night, but it's always a worry when Neka chooses to lay still.)

I got her into the house and took Maija & Keskiyo out and by the time I had finished with them Neka's condition had deteriorated already and she was clearly in some discomfort. Discomfort that continued to worsen over the course of the next hour until she was very clearly in a lot of pain - panting, the pupils of her eyes were dilated and she had started to hunch her back.

I phoned the vet & told them I was on my way and within an hour Neka was in hospital on a drip with a temperature of over 104ºF (40ºC). Her condition was so unstable that they didn't want to do an xray to see whether she had a blockage because of the strain even a small amount of sedation would put on her organs. They took a blood sample and sent it to the lab for urgent results and gave her some pain relief and then we started waiting.

Our vet surgery is a large, busy hospital in Exeter and so when there is something about they are always one of the first to hear about it. That weekend they had no fewer than 3 dogs in intensive care with vomiting, diarrhea and pancreatitis of varying severity and danger. Although Neka's symptoms were slightly different, they suspected that she was victim number 4 and started to treat her for that and gastroenteritis.

Two days later, and I've just brought her home. She was almost as excited to see me as I was to see her! Each day when they told me she would have to stay overnight, I desperately wanted to go and see her but managed to control myself. It might make us feel better to see for ourselves that she's ok, but I know that if she saw us and then we left without her it would be much worse for her. So we stayed tough and when I called three times each day I took the staff's word that she was doing well.

She's still not completely back to her old self - far from it.















It frightens me to think how ill she has been. However I'm hopeful she'll recover pretty quickly now that she's back home. We have 3 different drugs to give her for the rest of the week; one anti-sickness tablet and two different kinds of antibiotic. And she's back to see her friend the vet on the weekend.

We still don't know if she has pancreatitis; it will take a couple of days to get the results of the second lot of blood tests. And we still don't know - and probably will never know - what caused the problem in the first place. But if several dogs have had the same thing, then that implies there is a strange bug around that attacks particular organs. Luckily, everyone else in the house has been absolutely fine.

Maija was at work with Jay when Neka came home, but she had a very warm welcome from Keskiyo.
















Neka had a long drink then settled down in her favorite spot for a snooze. For the first hour Keskiyo just lay about a foot away watching her. It was quite sweet to see him be so attentive. Usually when he's focused on the girls it's not with attention so much as with intention.

Here's Neka a couple of weeks ago, her usual bouncy self. Hopefully we'll see some more of that before very long.



















And the cost of Neka's good health? Priceless, you might say. Except that we can, of course, identify a very precise price in the form of vet bills. This episode - £400. Actually, I thought that was pretty good, considering 3 days, 2 nights, 2 blood tests, and a load of drugs. After all, if her ailment had been caused by her swallowing something she shouldn't that had caused a blockage (as I first feared), then there would have been xrays and surgery as well. That would likely have pushed the price into 4 figures.

Ask around and you'll get lots of stories about why animal insurance is a good idea. This is just one of them.

So, is Neka insured? Er, no. But the others are, and after this Neka will be too because if she can contract a debilitating mystery illness out of the blue, then surely anyone can, and absolutely anything is possible.

new poll

I've been rooting around looking through the blog archives and enjoying the puppies all over again. It's hard for me to believe, but I haven't had a poll on the blog since Sept 08 when Maija's litter were going off to their new homes. Has it really been that long? The polls are fun and when there are puppies in the house there are loads of events to have a little game about, so I thought I'd kick off with the first one about Taika's litter.

Hoped for litter. Do you suppose I'm jinxing the whole thing by even referring to it? There is one school of thought - the School of Superstitious Paranoia - that says you should keep your mouth shut about stuff until it happens. But where's the fun in that?

So, I'm giving readers plenty of time to vote in the poll as these news-less days I know many people only check in with the blog occasionally. The most votes I think I ever had on one of the puppy polls was 16, which was pretty good, actually. However, there are a lot more people reading these days. I've had messages & emails from all over the world from all sorts of strangers saying how much they enjoy the blog, and that's very nice, folks - thanks! So it will be interesting to see if some of those readers participate in the polls too and bump up the number of votes.

In 3 weeks Taika will be scanned to see whether she is indeed pregnant and how many puppies she is likely to have. By the time the scan date rolls around we'll probably have a pretty good idea whether she is pregnant or not, but the number of puppies is always a big mystery. Kath, the woman I go to for scanning is excellent, I must say. With my first litter she said "It's a bit early but I can definitely see 7." And Neka had 7. With the second litter Kath very kindly agreed to see me as she was practically on her way out the door heading for the airport and her holiday. It was the earliest possible day it's even worth scanning and I was on my way back from a show. So, we were all in a bit of a hurry. She had a very quick rummage before Neka shifted position and she lost the image and said she saw 7 again but that if she had more time she might find more. Yep, that would be the 9 then.

So, Taika will also be going to see Kath but it won't be so early. With Neka, either by the time of the scan, or literally 2 days later, it was very obvious that she was pregnant. So, I guess we'll know with Taika too, even if we suspect bad news and don't want to admit it to ourselves. The poll, then, is this. How many puppies will the scanner find?

I was going to add an option to vote that she won't be pregnant at all, but that really would be tempting fate, so I'm just not going there.

For those of you new to the Infindigo polls, you can find the voting buttons at the top right of the blog. Happy voting! Check back in 3 weeks for the result. And if, in all the excitement, I somehow forget to post the results, I'm sure someone will remind me.

Now we're off to the beach, so photos later.

more mud

On the first Sunday of the year I host my Devon Lappy walk for the SFLS. Last year we had 8 dogs (including one honorary Lapphund in the shape of Akita Anniebear) and a bunch of people and we met at Bigbury on a clear, cold, windy day and got lots of great photos.

This year the timing of the tide wasn't very helpful and we were in constant and imminent danger of being under way too much snow and ice to attempt the winding back roads to get there. So we did the ever-popular walk at Saltram House in Plymouth instead. It was busy over the holidays. I mean, it was - whoa! - BUSY. Plenty of dogs, too many people, lots of bicycles and kids on scooters. Not really my flavour. Thankfully it had somewhat improved in the new year when we went, and we had a nice walk followed by tea in the cafe.

In spite of the biting wind, and all the ice and snow we had before and after this day, it perhaps goes without saying that the dogs still managed to find rather a lot of mud.

















L-R: Alan, Liz & Helen with Koda; Jo & George with Tarkka; Jay with Neka & Maija

What were those dogs looking at, you ask? No idea. But there was plenty of action in the vicinity to choose from and it was quite handy for getting the dogs to sit still long enough for the camera moment.

The first Sunday of the year is a tough time to gather folk & their dogs as everyone always has lots of commitments around that time. So I think I'll try to pull something together later in the year when it's a little more convenient. Suggestions for location would be more than welcome. I love Bigbury, but I'm not sure how dog-friendly it is in high season. And Saltram is just too hectic. I'll have to do a bit of research & get back to you on that one.

waiting again

So, we got to France, we met Stéphanie and her mother who both offered us fantastic hospitality. We partook of much delicious coffee & food (well, it was France, after all), including la galette des Rois. Kate won the prize, la fève, from the cake and so got to wear the crown and is now also due a year of good luck - hurrah! However, it also apparently means she's supposed to buy the cake for next year's celebration. I wonder if she realises she's going to have to go back...

Stéphanie's dogs were quite adorable, and we particularly admired the boys who were the sweetest of all, jostling each other good naturedly to be first in the queue for cuddles from the strangers. Kate fell in love with Armas who kept snuggling up to her demanding to have his chest scratched. He reminded me so much of Keskiyö which is, perhaps, unsurprising as they share a sire. Lucky for us, though, Taika fell in love with Albmi. Or something like that. Here they are having a little get-to-know-you game.



The video was cut unfortunately short when I accidentally hit the stop button with fingers numb and shaking with cold. If anything, it was even colder in Normandy than in the UK and with lots of snow. Albmi wasted no time and we got what we wanted quickly and with a minimum of fuss. As a result, we actually changed our return journey home to a day earlier. And it was lucky we did, as it started snowing as we left and by the next day, when we were supposed to be leaving, the road to the ferry port was impassable.

Much like the roads home when we arrived Tuesday night.

After an enforced stopover in a hotel near Stonehenge, we finally made it to Kate's where I collected Maija, who had been keeping Jerome & the children company while Taika was away. Late morning yesterday, I finally got home. No one can say we didn't put a great deal of effort into this event.

But now we have to wait again to see whether it worked. And I guess Kate will be watching Taika with hawk eyes to see if she is showing any telltale differences in behaviour.

Courting

in with the new

I declare the new Infindigo website 'open'!

At last.

It's up and running, although there's still some work to do. There are a couple of dead links here and there and I'm hoping to eventually publish a page for every Infindigo dog bred, but at the moment I'm not sure I've got quite enough space in my hosting package. Plus, that constitutes as much work again as I've already done... so, y'know, we'll see about that one.

In the meantime, go check it out and link to me: http://www.infindigo.com

And I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very happy and healthy new year, full of all the wonderful things that puppies bring without any of the crap.

muddiest walk

Apart from slipping on the ice & whacking my head on the 23rd, we've had some wonderful walks over the past couple of weeks. When the rain finally stopped and it got cold it was ideal walking weather and, of course, the dogs have been loving it.

You would think all these pleasant walks would be good opportunities to get dog photos, wouldn't you? As will always now happen to me this time of year, I'm desperately trying to get photos appropriate for the SFLS Yearbook. We went to a show a couple of weeks ago and although I didn't take any of the dogs into the ring (it's a long story), I did manage to bag a rendezvous for Keskiyo with the Dog World photographer on site. Luckily he was looking fab at the time and so I've got a good image for his Yearbook page.

I didn't have time to do similarly with Neka & Maija before leaving the show so I've been trying to get pics of them ever since. *sigh* Neka hasn't quite got her full coat, so any photo of her will only be ok. Here is a sample of my attempts to get a pretty shot in the bracken of Maija the Ever Moving Target.










You get the idea (and, yes, that is her bottom disappearing out of shot at the bottom of the 3rd one).

So yesterday we drove to Taika & Kaija's neighbourhood which is almost exactly halfway between us and Rauhan. There we all met with full families and, because all the pretty frost has melted, had the muddiest walk imaginable in Greyfield Wood. I'm hoping I managed to get a better photo with Kate's camera after mine died. Here's my 'best' attempt.















People L-R: Isabelle, Jerome, Emily, Jane, Jay, Adrian (with Dorothy on his back)
Dogs L-R: Taika, Neka, Kaija, Maija (with Keskiyo behind), Rauhan

What is everyone looking at, you may be wondering? They are watching Emma try to catch Sukka, who escaped. Ah, what japes. Anyhow, just have a look at the colour of the dogs - particularly Maija's formerly white legs.

cold

Boring weather discussion alert.

All over the UK there have been unusually happy Lappies these last few days. Yup, it's been snowing a-plenty. But not here. And while that's just fine by me, I'm sure the dogs are feeling hard done by when they hear about what their friends and relatives have been up to.

They've been enjoying the temperature in the garden, though, and skidding around on the patio-turned-ice-rink. If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you might remember Keskiyo lounging on the frozen pond last winter. Yesterday he dropped his tennis ball "into" the pond and was delighted to find that it didn't sink. It was very amusing watching him gingerly testing the ice to see if it would hold his weight - and almost falling in head-first when it didn't.

He's pretty sure he can reach it if he just tries hard enough.















And speaking of cold, a couple of weeks ago we met up with Jo, George & Tarkka for a defiant walk on the beach because we were all fed up to the teeth with the endless weeks of rain, rubbish walks and soggy dogs. Apart from the ferocious wind and horizontal sleety rain, it was a great, although it did take some hunting to find a bit of beach on which to walk as the tide was in. But, Lappies being what they are, thought the disgusting weather was just fab, thank you very much, and even had a paddle or two in the water. Brrr!


















Tarkka enjoying the wind blowing rain in his face



















And having a paddle

still here

ho hum

But I guess everyone concerned is quite glad we won't be descending on someone's family christmas accompanied by a dog with an agenda.

In the meantime, here is a cute photo of Albmi's sire, Orso-Farm Caamos, that Stephanie took last year. What a sweet fluff ball he is.

waiting

Any day, any day at all now, Taika will come into season. And when she does Kate & I are taking her to France to meet this handsome fellow for a romantic assignation.

Lapinlumon Albmi























Photo: Stéphanie Dubois

His parents are Dk Ch Lapinlumon Kiiski and Orso-Farm Caamos (whose photos you can see if you scroll about 1/3 of the way down the list on this page) and I originally found him when I was researching the offspring of Kiiski, who I just love, love, love the look of. It just so happened that he lives conveniently in southern France instead of somewhere rather more difficult to get to with dog in tow, like Denmark or Finland. What luck!

So, when will Taika come into season? Well, that is anyone's guess, unfortunately, as she doesn't share her mother's regular hormonal cycles and has historically had her seasons whenever she felt like it. Seemingly. I can see a trip to celebrate Noël in my future.

And what colour will the puppies be? Again, that's pretty much anyone's guess. Taika is brown tricolour from two black tricolour parents and Albmi is wolf sable from one wolf sable parent and one black & tan who carried the recessive gene for brown. Therefore, there is a good chance that Albmi also carries that gene - and looking at the colour of his coat, he looks as though there might be some brown in there. However, we won't know until he produces a brown puppy. So Taika's litter might turn out black tricolour, brown tricolour, wolf sable or brown sable. But my money is on wolf sables and brown tricolours, if that means anything (which it doesn't, really). But it will be very interesting to find out.

Inko visit

At the moment Paula & Adam are having one or two little changes to their home decor. Ahem.

Anyway, while they have moved out, Inko has come to stay with us and it's been fun & games pretty much non-stop from first light to lights out. Did I say fun? Well, fun for the Lappies, anyway. For us, it's pretty tiring sometimes. You would think they would wear each other out, but long after Keskiyo & Neka have given up, the 2 youngsters are still going strong. Maija will miss her so much when she goes back home - perhaps I'll send her to stay in Surrey for a few weeks in return...

Here they are on the way home from a walk.












L-R: Maija, Keskiyo, Inko




















And this is any typical evening.




















Maija on top

Just to prove that Maija's not always the one stirring up trouble, in this one she only wants to go to sleep. No chance!

happy halloween

I don't have any cute festive dog photos, but my friend Karen certainly does. Check out adorable Taivas doing her pumpkin impersonation.

And here are Jedi and Ahsoka doing their bit to celebrate in Australia.

Tarmo visit

A few weeks ago Stacey & Shane stopped by with Tarmo for an hour on their way home from holiday in Cornwall. It was wonderful to see them all - especially as we hadn't seen Tarmo since he left home more than a year ago. He and Maija had a great time playing together, although it was more or less impossible to get a photo of that. Nonetheless, I did get a couple of still shots in the car park before they left.



































Having a cuddle with Shane

And, lo & behold, check out his side saddle sit:

scarecrow

Oh, there are few things more pathetic looking than a bald Lappy. Yet, with agonising regularity they have an enormous moult and lose all their undercoat - and sometimes most of their topcoat as well. Witness poor little Maija. She will, perhaps, never forgive me for publishing this terrible photo of her looking her absolute worst. But the good news is that it grows back better than ever. Eventually.

congratulations

...to the SFLS. We are so proud to have won 1st prize in the Dog World / Midland Counties competition for our wonderful Yearbook 2009 and quarterly newsletter, Lappy Tails. If you haven't joined the Society already, then don't miss another issue of our award-winning publication! You can download a membership form here.

thank you

We've had so many lovely messages about Annie from so many people. Thank you all. I know there is nothing to say on these sad occasions, but it really has helped to know how much she touched the lives of so many.

Goodbye to Anniebear

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? 1998 – 28 Sep 2009

A day I never wanted to face has arrived and we have had to say goodbye to our beloved Akita, Annie. So gentle, and so beautiful, she won admirers everywhere she went.

Annie came to us early in 2005 when Neka was less than a year old. We weren't looking for another dog, but a chance long wait in the vet's office brought her to us when she arrived for treatment with an RSPCA handler. We looked at her and she looked at us and we went straight to the RSPCA centre to 'reserve' her, even though they hadn't yet assessed the severity of her hip dysplasia or even whether she would be suitable for re-homing.

Over the next 2 weeks we visited her everyday and took her for walks, getting to know her and trying to determine whether a 33 kilo, middle-aged abandoned Akita could fit in with us, with Neka and with our 2 cats. We need not have worried.

After the first few visits, she would be waiting for me and would drag her handler through the door to greet me. After our walks, she would quietly sit at my feet. One day she headed straight for our van and tried to hop in. It was just right, and so in February she came home with us and immediately claimed her den under the stairs.

We did get off to a slightly shaky start. During the first night she decided she didn't want to stay in the kitchen so with one yank she uninstalled the cat flap from the door. From time to time she also displayed an alarming talent for simply breaking out of metal crates. She never wanted to actually go anywhere, so long as she was with us she was happy.

I had done a lot of reading about Akitas and had sought advice from a few experienced owners and breeders, so we were careful with her at first, learning to read her body language and cautiously approaching introducing her to the cats and to other dogs. Pretty soon she was walking off lead all the time and was beautifully behaved and always eager to please – at least when she wasn't having one of her stubborn moments. At a dog show campground, someone once called “Look out, there's an Akita loose!” Many people leapt to attention to help until someone laughed and said “Oh, it's only Annie.”

At first, as she rolled around on the floor having her tummy scratched, I was afraid when she would open her enormous mouth wide and roll her eyes at me. Sensing my nervousness, she would open that mouth even wider until it was almost big enough to fit a human head. It took me a while to realise that this ferocious looking expression was her soft face and the more nervous I felt, the 'softer' she would make it to put me at ease.

She was great with all people and animals, and so patient with the puppies. However, she did demand her due respect from other dogs. If any dog ever took advantage, she would go up on her toes, head and tail held high as if to say, 'You do know I'm an Akita, right?' and that was all it took. Once, when I was having a crisis with a screaming puppy caught in barbed wire in a field, Annie immediately assessed the situation and stood guard at the gate of the field, letting no person or dog enter until the crisis had passed.

Letting them go when the time comes is the last important act of love you perform for them. You owe it to them to make sure there is no needless suffering, but still I didn't think I could go through with it. In the end, she told us that she had had enough and it was time to go – she stopped eating and didn't even try to get to her feet anymore.

I will miss her during thunder storms when she would seek me out, not because she was disturbed for herself, but to protect me. I will miss her when I'm sitting in the garden during summer evenings when she would stretch out next to my chair on the cool stones. I will miss her on woodland walks where she would suddenly revert to puppyhood to chase the squirrells. And I will miss her everyday lying on her back, feet in the air, snoring next to my desk at work.

I'm so grateful to the wonderful staff at St David's Vet Hospital in Exeter who care for all our animals, and cared for Anniebear right to the end. I was so touched that the nurse who treated Annie the very first time she came in from the RSPCA came again today to assist the vet and say goodbye as well.

Run free, my bear, without pain, and we'll look forward to seeing you again on the other side.