"Greta"

------ Vartija Greta - Finnish Spitz ------
(11 April 1996 - 23 December 2008)

Our beautiful Grand Old Duchess passed over to the bridgeon 23 December 2008.

It was sudden but not unexpected. She was 12 and a half years old and been through so much.

On the Monday lunchtime she was her usual happy, yappy little self. By Monday tea she showed no interest in food and we decided to take her to the vet in the morning. The vets open at 7:30 am with the actual vets arriving about 8ish.

She had an unsettled night but was at home at least (if we did an emergency vet on the Monday night she would have been alone at the vets).

We all woke up Tuesday morning and I then checked on Greta every 10 minutes. At 7:20 she looked at me and said goodbye. At 7:30 when I was about to call the vet to arrange to take her in my husband said that not to call them as she had passed away.

She was home with her family - my beautiful baby has passed over.

Greta's story is below:

Greta is our adorable Finkie who came to us in 1996.

She was bred by Barry and Pam Vogt and we were very lucky to have been able to 'adopt' her.

She was the 'classic' Finkie - mischievous and she was quite convinced that she was the largest dog around and definitely Top Dog in our household.

The first 8 years of her life were spent with Miska who, although a Finkie, was a little larger than Greta. Miska was 3 years old when she joined our family and Greta was just a puppy. That didn't stop Greta from laying the law down.

After Miska passed away Greta then a puppy of her own to play with - Freya our Alaskan Malamute. It was quite odd to see little Greta jumping up to nip Freya on the ruff of her neck so that she could put Freya 'in her place'.

In January 2005, after a tussle with Freya, Greta dislocated her hip, unfortunately it wouldn't stay in place so the veterinarian recommended that we excise the head of the femur (take off the ball on the top of her back right leg) so that her leg no longer sat in the joint. Anyway - it worked. There was a fairly long recovery period starting with 5 minute walks (we could only walk about 200 metres in 5 minutes - a real slow walk). After the stitches were out we needed to do some 'pool therapy' but unfortunately there is no 'puppy pool' near where we live and there are crocodiles in the rivers and box jellyfish in the sea so we purchased a small childs blow up pool just for Greta - she loved it. Mind you the pool cost practically nothing but the 6 foot tall isolation fence with self locking gate cost quite a bit - but she is worth every penny.

Greta became now the 'grand old lady' of the menagerie but was still active and won the hearts of all who come into contact with her.

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