It is with great sadness and shock that we have to announce that our beautiful Russia has died. We are deeply upset that we have lost such a wonderful dog that enriched our lives in such a short life span.

 

 She was only 2 years and 10 months old.

 

 She was without doubt the most complete dog we have ever had, and she will be irreplaceable. She was always ready to either protect you, or play with you, or just lie at your feet to relax…..whatever the situation needed, she instinctively knew what to do. She was a joy.

 

 She made all newcomers to our family welcome. She was our “welcoming committee” because she could be trusted to look after the new dogs or puppies. It was for this reason that she was at Discover Dogs at Crufts for the past 3 seasons because of her energy and unique, friendly temperament.

 

 She developed a mucus cough on the Friday and was not her usual high energy self on her walk that evening. Over the next 5 days her conditions worsened with coughing up blood and unable to breath. She could not lie down to rest as this caused her to cough more, so she progressively became exhausted. She died on the Wednesday morning after we had stayed up all night with her.

Our adorable Russia as we

shall remember her...

 The post mortem has revealed that she died of a particularly virulent strain of pneumonia that she could not fight off even with the help of antibiotics. The lack of sleep and rest contributed to her collapse as the pneumonia filled her lungs with fluid which made it impossible to her lay down for the 5 days.

 

 We are still in a state of shock and sadness that our lovely Russia could one day be healthy and running about and playing, and within 5 days die of a terrible illness that we or our vets were powerless to help her with.

 

 India is without doubt our pack leader, but Russia was its heart and the rest of our dogs since her passing have been in a limbo as she was always at the centre of whatever was going on, whether chasing, playing, barking, or just stealing everybody else’s bone…she was always there….and we still look for her.

 

 The picture we have on our home page is Russia taken only last month as we will always remember her…..always alert, full of energy and bounce and totally devoted to her family.