She was an small Labrador with a short nose and the widest tail you've ever seen. Like a black otter! Her kennel name was Gemfire of Gamefield, but I called her Ruby. Now a really popular dog's name, but not so much at that time. When she was young she was so fast and such a great hunter and swimmer. She was never really an 'on the couch' dog. She liked her own bed and her kennel in the garden. I think that her really thick coat and her undercoat made her too hot. She spent most of her life in an alpine area and was very used to snow and leaping into partly frozen ponds for a swim. She did not like the heat one bit. And she didn't really like sand on her paws - never a beach fan.
She was the cutest puppy - a roly poly of a pup. She came from a breeder on the South Island (I live in NZ) and at the time I was in the North Island. I flew over to choose her and then a few weeks later she arrived on a flight. The breeders farm was in this lovely spot in green hills and overlooking the sea. And as it happensI now work at a school that is about a 10 minute drive from that farm. When I chose her i had no idea that a move South was even in my future.
She was incredibly gentle and I have heard her bark maybe five or six times. I once saw her submit to a spider - she took one look at it and rolled on her back - wouldn't walk round it. For years she came to work with me - I am a teacher - and she became the school dog in a tiny tiny country school, free ranging around the classrooms all day. All of the kids loved her and I had to ban them from feeding her because she began to look like an outhouse. She'd just lie on the classroom floor, being stroked and petted - there was not a kid in that school who was nervous of dogs because of her. She liked picking up their socks and moving their shoes.
When my ex left i insisted that she was staying with me and she was a huge comfort to me with all of her love. As long as she was with me I felt OK. Last summer she came camping with me - I gave her her last ever bath in an old cattle trough on the edge of the farm paddock and she slept under my camp bed every night.
She went deaf about 5 years ago and whilst her sight has been getting worse over the last couple of years, in the past 6 months she became completely blind. She would still steal the cat food though, up until the day she died, inching slowly across the kitchen floor on her tummy, alert to the vibrations of my footsteps coming to catch her.
She started to get odd lumps about 3 years ago and she had an operation to remove an especially smelly lump in her ear four months ago. She did really well and seemed to be improving. Then slowly she started to look quite wretched - i could feel all of the lumps and bumps on her spine and it was like her skin was hanging off her bones, although she still looked well fed. But she would often pick at her food and vomited quite often. It turned out that one of her lumps had started to grow inside and there was a huge mass inside her. The well fed appearance was actually a big old tumour.
So that was it for my 17 year old baby, the keeper of my secrets and the love of my life. All I can hope is that she is with my Mum and Dad, wherever they are and that one day i might just see her again. The vet said that when she died she might gasp or gulp, but she didn't. She just slipped away quietly and smoothly with her head in my lap.