MEET ROXY 1 JULY 1993 - 10 OCTOBER 1998
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Since reading the books by Judith Berrisford about a white German Shepherd when I was a kid I wanted one. My dream came true in 1993. Contacted the Kennel Club for breeders, found an available litter.
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They were in Doncaster we went to visit at 3 weeks old, and I chose Roxy. (Unique Pearl was her kennel club name) She was the only one to stay awake more than a few minutes to play with me. |
| She was very small for her age, Tessa made her look tiny. We fed her on fish and chicken for the first few weeks to build her up. She got quite a taste for fish, and put on weight fast. |
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Roxy and Tessa used to enjoy long walks over Cannock Chase, when she got to around nine months old we noticed that she was very stiff in her back legs after long walks. Very strange for such a young dog. |
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So we took her to the vets. He X-rayed her hips. Don't know if you know but larger dogs can have a "hip score", the lower the number the better fit of the ball and socket joint in the hip.
Click here to find more about hip dysphasia
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Roxy's score? Unknown! Her hips were so bad she had no socket, and almost no ball, which meant she couldn't walk properly after a lot of exercise. Vet suggested hip replacements when she was around 5-6 years. |
| It didn't stop her having a good time. We contacted the kennel club, and noticed that Roxy's Mom and Dad had the same father. The Kennel Club said it was allowed, "line breeding" they called it. |
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But they did write a letter to the breeders discouraging them breeding the two dogs again. Life continued. We were waiting for Roxy to have her first season to get her spade. Boy did we have a wait! |
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Whilst we were waiting, in the Autumn of 1993 my friend at work was having a photographer in, I asked my boss if it would be alright if I brought Tessa and Roxy to work to have their photo taken together with a professional look, he agreed, and again the two friends graced my office at work, again the visitors to my office increased to play with the 'twins'. To have their photo taken they had to go from one end of the building to the other, this was done at a quiet time, but at the end of the corridor my friends were calling the dogs, the dogs were excited, and Mommy was wearing heels! I flew down the corridor being pulled by two strong excited German Shepherds. My "mates" at the end of the corridor were in stitches, I was laughing so much I couldn't hold them, and they dragged me all the way. |
| The first time we went on holiday to the caravan with the two dogs, Roxy refused to go to the toilet, no wee or poo, for almost 72 hours. When she did go she was there a long time. Usually dogs come into season every 6 months, Roxy was 14 months old when she had her first season! Then that was only brought on by the introduction of Corrie. (see Corrie's story) We got Corrie from Scotland on holiday at the caravan, the same day Roxy came into season. We were there with friends, who had a boy cross-shepherd, he was very friendly with Roxy that week, he was so friendly he almost drowned her in the stream whilst trying to mount her. Roxy now was taking the position of "Mother" to Corrie. On another occasion as we were going to the caravan in the afternoon, Roxy cut her pad on a front paw quite badly. Trip to the vet. Stitched her up, under general anesthetic, collected her at about 1pm and she slept all the way to Scotland, she was fine. |
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The other thing with Roxy was her fascination for pebbles. If you look closely you can see a rock in her mouth on the left. We did take them off her and throw them into the river where it was a bit deeper, but we gave that up when we noticed that she dived in after them and got the same rock! Luckily no broken teeth!
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There was also the time at the caravan when we went golfing, left the dogs in the caravan, closed both halves the stable door behind the us, zipped up the awning door. We got back for the neighbours son to tell us that Roxy (don't forget she has bad hips!) had opened the top half of the stable door and jumped out. |
| Then had a run round with a couple of other dogs, followed by our neighbours son, then when she got tired she jumped back through the awning door that was zipped up to about 4½ feet and over the stable door of the caravan! Bad hips, no one had told Roxy that! |
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She loved posing for photos. German Shepherds have pointy ears, I thought I would see what she looked like with floppy ears, and here she is!
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Roxy went dog training too! She passed beginners in August 1994 just the same as Tessa, at Bloxwich Dog Training Club. She went up to Intermediate. Roxy had no trouble with retrieve, or heel work. Unfortunately in Intermediate you have do a down stay out of sight. So you put the dog in a down stay and leave the room. Roxy did not agree with this! Mommy does not leave me! It took three years to get her not to move when I left. But when she passed she came 1st in August 1997. |
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In November of 1995 the trio became four with the introduction of Bobby (see Bobbys story). Roxy and Bobby got on really well, except when we went for our walks. Roxy had a frisbee that she loved, we throw it she caught it etc. But Bobby was a Border Collie, quicker than Roxy, he often got there first and ran rings round her, well she didn't put up with that. As Bobby would run past her she grabbed his tail and stopped him in his tracks, and got back the frisbee.
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| So now Roxy joined Tessa in the Advanced class. She was taking to it quite well. Then one summer when we came back from the caravan we noticed that she looked thin on her back end. So we started giving her more food. But she didn't put on any weight, she was absolutely fine in every other way the vet said nothing was wrong. During that Summer Mommy had fallen in love with Merlin (see Merlins story). |
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Then a few weeks later she stopped eating, back to the vet. He did blood tests and took X-rays . A week later we went back to the vet, she was only five, the vet showed us the X-rays, her lungs were squashed against her spine, her chest cavity was full of fluid. The vet said he would take her in and do a biopsy on the fluid in her chest, at the same time he drained some of it to make her more comfortable. He sent the fluid sample away. |
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| We went back for the results, it was as we feared, "She has a large malignant tumour in her chest, inoperable." We couldn't let her suffer any more. There was nothing we or the vet could do, the decision was made to put her to sleep. We had her cremated and her ashes returned in a beautiful wooden box, I had a brass plaque made to stick onto the box with "ROXY, Unique Pearl, 1st July 1993 to 10th october 1998". Some people say that the pain of losing a dog is so much that they couldn't get another. Me, I would (and do) go through all the pain again because the years you have with them before make it all worth while! |
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