| Dogs of the North |
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The Pack |
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Kira |
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In Memoriam
Kira left us on January 16, 2006. View photos from her last days with us and read below to find out more about this wonderful dog. Kira was born Kortmar Ex Kira in Canberra, Australia on the 24th of January, 1997. She was the smartest, most sensible, sensitive dog with a maternal nature toward children, cats, her adopted little brother Chief, and even her Mom and Dad. "Kira knows best" is what we used to always say because Kira would usually insist that her way was the right way. She had sweetest temperament and loved people and absolutely adored children. At times when she sensed children's apprehension towards her, she would do her submissive roll - lying down and rolling onto her back. She did love other dogs but could turn nasty if a large dog got aggressive with her. As with Chief, Kira would totally ignore aggressive little dogs. In a number of cases, little dogs had attacked the ample mane of fur around her neck and one or two had even grabbed on and just hung there! Kira would just ignore them. Big dogs however were a different story. Kira wouldn't tolerate any aggressive behaviour from a large dog and even seemed to enjoy showing them who was top dog. Kira was sometimes a little bit claustrophobic indoors. If we were visiting a strange, small place with lots of twists and turns, she would sometimes refuse to go in without coaxing. However she was absolutely fearless outdoors. It was clear that she had mushing in her blood. She loved to please and loved to work. She was also very competitive on the trail and never liked to follow anyone - canine or human. She was very athletic and had a great endurance and a strong desire to run even when tired. As she was quite long in the body, her stride was huge and she could also make some amazing leaps and scale incredibly steep grades - up or down! Once when we were at a park and she was running off-leash, she ran down an eight foot concrete wall that was something close to vertical. She wanted to reach the water! I was really concerned because I thought she would be stuck down there. Just as I was running around looking for possible exits and a way for me to get her out, she ran back up the concrete wall. I was absolutely amazed. Kira always paid very close attention to what was happening around her. Not much escaped her attention, and she would continually monitor her surroundings and the behaviour and emotions of people she was with. She had the darn cutest tail wag action with a small arc and a fast and short action, the complete opposite of Chief's slow and wide wag. You could actually tell what Kira thought about something by the number of wags you got. You could ask her a question such as how she liked her food, and she would give you one, two, three, or sometimes even four wags. Despite an entire toy chest full of stuffed squeaky toys, Kira had a special place in her heart for her 'hedgies' - the stuffed hedgehogs with squeakers inside. Kira would yield to Chief in many matters but when it came to food and hedgies, she wouldn't put up with any of his bullying antics. You can read about Kira's unique use of hedgies here. Kira and her "little" brother Chief had been together since they were eight weeks old. I called the the two of them "The Chief and Kira Show" because they were truly inseparable and did everything together. They were like chalk and cheese but were the best of friends. The "Dynamic Duo," always attracting crowds wherever they went. The two big, furry, soft-coated Malamutes from Australia. Kira left us eight days before what would have been her ninth birthday. This was a very unexpected event that came in a string of heartbreaks over a two month period. First we found a cancerous lump under Chief's chin. That was subsequently removed but was fortunately not lymphosarcoma. Then we lost Paddy three days before Christmas. Then the day before Christmas, Chief's seizures got worse and we had to resort to putting him on phenobarbitol which has all sorts of side-effects. Even though Kira had obviously been living with her cancer for some time, she gave no sign that anything was wrong. Always her happy, smiling self, full of energy and doing everything and anything with her little brother. On the second Friday in January, we realised suddenly that something was very wrong. She was not acting her normal self and had no interest in food which was a definite sign of trouble. She was moving very slowly and appeared to be very lethargic. The next day our vet took x-rays and one of nightmare suspicions proved to be true - she had a huge tumour which we would later find out was spread amongst many organs. Over the weekend we spent what we feared at the time would be our last days with her. Saturday was a day that scared us greatly as she would not eat nor drink. However on Sunday after her temperature went down a bit, she did begin drinking and eating a little again. We were enthused by this but still wary that the worst was yet to come. We enjoyed a very special Sunday evening when our friend Paddy Armstrong came over for dinner and Kira enjoyed her company very much. Like Duffy and I, Paddy thought positive thoughts and told Kira she would see her again soon. On Monday morning we took her in for exploratory surgery. We stayed with her in what would be her last few hours after she was given preparatory injections for surgery. We thought positive thoughts and kissed her on her muzzle and told her how much we loved her. I wished her good luck and told her I would see her again shortly. We kept our fingers crossed but we knew the odds were probably not good. The surgery proved what we had feared. Our only choice for her was to say our goodbyes and with many tears and heavy hearts we told her how much we loved her as she lay sleeping on the operating table. It hurt so much to lose her but we were consoled by the fact that she probably felt little pain towards the end. She had a wonderful, happy life. She almost always had a smile on her face that would just make you smile when she looked at you. She was the first dog that I had the great honour of caring for (along with Chief). She taught me so much and the three of us did so much together. I used to sit with her and Chief and tell them all about the great adventure we had travelling from Australia to Canada, all so they could enjoy the northern winters. In the last hours before her surgery, I told her about all the things we did together in Australia with Chief - swimming in the surf at the beach, backpacking, meeting other dogs and people at the dog parks. Many of the photos on this website capture those special times together. She will always have a very special place in our hearts. Go in peace our special girl. Thank you for guiding us through our life together. We thought this lovely poem sent to us by our friend Bev Badke, was very appropriate to our memory of Kira.
Check out Paddy's page. |
