This is one of my dogs, Sophie. I painted this when she was about 4 or 5. She will be 12 in December. She is the fifth dog I have had and is certainly one of the very best. We got our first dog, Sonia, in 1976. She was an Alaskan Malamute and was a great talker. When she was 13 months old, we discovered she had Wobbler’s, which was uncurable. Still, we found a specialist who put some screws in her neck vertebrae to stabilize them and keep them from getting more out of postion. After that surgery, she lived to be 11 and a half, despite having limited walking ability. She was a wonderful dog who howled and “talked”. She loved to go on walks, but at her own pace.
After she was gone, we decided to get a smaller breed and got Mila, our first Siberian Husky. Mila was very independent and sweet. She was so determined to get her walks every day, that she literally walked until the day before she died. When Mila was 10 we decided to get a second dog, another Siberian, but a red and white one we named Kitah. Kitah was an escape artist and a lover who would go home with anyone who gave her attention. She developed an autoimmune blood disease when she was barely 5 and died 4 months after the diagnosis. We got another beautiful red husky named Tango when he was 6, having retired as a show dog. He had juvenile cataracts and ended up being blind in one eye with limited vision in the other eye. He never had trouble seeing well enough to navigate around the house and yard and loved his walks, as well.
After Kitah died, we got her first cousin, Sophie, who was just 18 months old. She and Tango got along very well. When Tango finally died at 13.5 years of age, we got Tesla, who had just completed her championship at the age of 5. She is another beautiful red husky and is extremely sweet and well behaved. When our daughter moved out of our house, she insisted that Tesla go with her. We got along with only one dog, Sophie, for a short time, until we decided that she was feeling lonely. We were able to adopt Bop (Chantilly Lace), a two year old who never grew to the normal standard husky size. She is a darling, energetic dog, and is the first Siberian we have ever had who barks, but mainly at feeding time.
Now that I have bored you with the story of our various dogs, I would like to ask you to send positive and healing thoughts to a friend of mine, Kelly, who is in the hospital with viral encephalitis. She is the dog breeder who has made all but the first two of our dogs possible. She is a wonderful person who should not be suffering or be in a coma. I would like to dedicate this post to her.
