No dog like Dovre, no horse like Hera

2013 has been a great year, but also one of great losses.

In spring my dear Uncle Eric passed on, which was a sad time for everyone. We had hoped he would be around for a family reunion planned in the summer but that was not to be. Uncle Eric and I had become pen-pals for the past few years; a real pleasure for both of us, I feel. There is nothing like writing or receiving a letter - I realise that facebooking and blogging falls short of the mark there.  However, I do hope that electronic means are some compensation for not seeing people as regularly as you would like, and not writing as often as you should...

___________________________

June 2013 saw also the passing of my dear friend and dog, Dovre.  For those who never met him, rest assured he was a husky-ambassador, and as kind and generous a canine as one could wish for.  Taking on a dog who is retired from sled-dog racing means you get a trained and a fit dog, yet one set in his own habits (although not untrainable, decidely stubborn to what he likes best!), and, alas, rather worn in the teeth, hence a companion for only a very few years. Dovre was with me for 3 years, and lived until almost 14 years old, which is rather a grand age for any hound, especially a husky.  He is buried in the birch woods, on a mountain slope overlooking the husky-farm where he was born.  Not many huskies live to his age, as many working dogs like him are disposed of (often simply shot) at about aged 8 (or less).  This is reality of the sport of dog-sledding: it is a business, after all.

During his 'retirement' with me, Dovre got to learn what it was to come inside a house and enjoy a warm place beside the fire.  He was spoilt, as all dogs deserve to be.  And I got to learn the pleasures of being a dog-owner!

Thank you, Dovre, for so many good times that I can't possibly post photos enough.  Here are but a few...

Including these photos of Dovre racing in his youth, from Stig-Martin Arctanger's excellent book, 'Finnmarksløpet', a race which Dovre was a veteran of.  

(See http://www.finnmarkslopet.no/front.jsp?lang=no for more details of this annual race)

If there is an after-life for dogs, I hope that Dovre is there, chasing reindeer!

____________________________

Sadly, on the land where Dovre was laid out to rest, there was a tragedy just a few weeks later. My friend, Ane Elene, whose family own the land, had two strong and kind Icelandic horses: Odin and Hera.  Sadly, Hera succumbed suddenly to a bad bout of colic.  Two days later, and after a great fight for her life, she had also passed on.  

As Winston Churchill once said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."  Of Hera, that was very true.