mBISS CH Nia Minda Catcher In The Rye TT ROMP

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CH Northstar’s Shanghai Express TT ROMP

OFA Good/ACVO cleared 2001

7-20-97

Alice became the next stepping-stone in our breeding program, producing the incomparable Georgie from her one and only breeding.  With incredible enduring type, lovely bone, amazing coat and head piece, she herself was a lovely show dog, winning the majority of her points at some of the huge Specialties of the 90s.  She was Best Junior in Sweeps at GGAC and RMAC and Winners Bitch at both Specialties as well. We brought her back out for her debut at an ACA Nationals at 10+ years old and she had a tremendously grand time kissing everyone she could con into getting close enough and doing some nice veteran winning as well including the Maturity 3 generation winner. 

But Alice’s biggest contribution to the breed has to be her temperament. A Catcher daughter with her father’s lovely, loving temperament, she has shown people again and again how charming and adorably sweet an Akita can be. She was the dog who invented the wave when we were showing her and she would stand on her hind legs and wave her front legs up and down hoping to lure someone in for a hug and big sloppy kiss. It worked more often than not and she collected friends all over the world.  And finally, and most importantly, Alice is my heart dog, my bed buddy, my darling. I love her smiling face….I always will. I get to start my day with a kissing fest and end it with my hand on her contented head and her happy smile on her face, even in sleep.  Who could be more blessed?

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Addendum to Alice

In the summer, just short of her 13th birthday, Alice left us unexpectedly. She was in excellent health and looked so much younger than her age, I was completely unprepared to lose her. Our vet expects that her heart just quit. It was such an enormous heart; it’s hard to imagine it failing. After we lost her sire, she became our very best ambassador in a breeding program full of ambassadors. She adored the world without exception or prejudice. A piece of me went with her when she left us and I miss her every day. While grief has undoubtedly slipped into self-indulgence, it is still so very difficult to even write her goodbye. Her name is forever on my bedroom door,

her memory forever in my heart.

You will always be a part of me,

With all my love, Francee.