RIP - Xena: Terrier Princes
Photos will be updated when my heart can handle it...
RIP - UKC (C) Xena: Terrier Princes - 4/27/99- 4/26/12
Xena was an old champion, one of the first UKC champions, before the AHT's were split into their own breed. She was an historic b!tch as well: she was the first UKC champion with a full, intact tail. I like to think she influenced more than a few folks with that tail.
I got Xena to honor a friend who was searching for a rattie - I had never heard of the breed until Margaret asked me to help her find a nice rat. Margaret passed due to a brain aneursym before she could get her rat: I carried the torch - all the way to Georgia and got Xena. Thanks again Rodney for trusting me with your girl.
Xena served as pitbull protector; our pits were so nice that anyone easily could have stolen them, and they were useless as guard dogs for they did not bark. Xena could bark, and bark she did. Man, was she LOUD when she wanted to be. She was a big talker too - hardly ever shut up, always had an opinion on every little thing. Sometimes in the car turning the radio to a country station would get her to cease her running commentary... sometimes. Xena was bossy - bossed those pitbulls around, so we called her Xena: The Enforcer, as she ruled the pack with a mighty nip if you were too loud or too boistrous or if you were making too much of a commotion in the house.
Xena wasn't my heart dog - but she was my dog, and I was her person. I blame the Aries/Taurus dynamic for this - we were never quite what we wanted from each other, but apparently we were what we both needed. She drove me crazy, right down to the end.
I always had hopes of registering her AKC, and picking up a few charlatan "Best In Show Misc" titles, but she took to showing like a chore. She did better as a model, and posed in whatever garb I sewed her into: she won a few online photo contests for me, and the pack was the richer as the prizes were dog toys and the like.
Xena was white in the face, and had lost weight these last 2 weeks. Vet said it was time - I think I knew too but didn't want to listen to her, as she was a very damanding, whiney b!tch. I had forgotten to bring the OFA forms for one last health stat - so here it is: 13 years old, knees still tight and sound, heart still normal. She did have cataracts, and was about 80% blind, so my vet thought. Never stopped her from anything, far as I could tell.
Hubby and I both bawled at the vet office; we've done this so many times before, this is not our first loss. And yet it may be our biggest to date.
For a dog that drove me crazy, for a dog I didn't even like, I sure did love her. |
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