Nina is in Doggy Heaven.

Nina

Age 12, September 07, 1997 - December 26, 2009

The best dog I could ever have asked for, you will be forever loved and dearly missed.

Nina was given to me by a friend's friend. My friend had gotten Nina's sister and when I saw his dog I inquired if there were others available. The answer was no, as the last dog remaining from the litter would be kept by the original owner. Needless to say, I couple of days later my friend called me to ask if I was still interested in the one female that became available, and I would have to decide quickly. It did not take me more the 1-2 seconds to say I wanted her. That was easily one of my best decisions to date. It was early November 1997, and Nina was barely 7 weeks old, as she had been born on September 7th. The name Nina came from Nina Hagen, the East German born singer. We lived in Rio de Janeiro at the time and from the get go Nina and my other dog Tida, a great little mutt, would go trail running with me on a daily basis. She loved those runs as they would invariably lead to a water hole she loved to dip in to cool herself off. She would have a "just leave me here in the water and get me on your way back" kind of look every time. In 2001 we moved to Virginia, and of course Nina flew with me from Rio. The flight took us to NY City's JFK airport and Nina really dreaded that flight. She came off the airplane after a overnight flight in one of those traveling dog kennels with a very stressed out face and I promised myself never to take her on a plane trip again. My wife picked us up and we drove down to Middleburg, VA, where we lived until 2005. In VA she had all the space to run and spent time chasing deer through the woods with her pal Mickie, a wired hair Dachshund my wife got from the Rescue. In 2005 we moved to South Bend, IN, and last year to Kansas. Due to mine and my wife's professional careers we have maintained residence in separate states, and have traveled back and forth as frequently as we can. Through the years we have done this, Nina has been my companion, and cheered up my life during the hard moments of life separate from wife and children. Thus, she has become, at least to me, the most important and allied friend I could have ever asked for. With all she and I went through in the last 12 years her loss has even greater meaning to me. At 6:16AM on the morning of the 26th Nina took her last breath. She was laying on my lap when it happened and she again looked at me as to say good bye. I know it will be a matter of time until I get adjusted to not having her wait for me to come home so we could go out on our trail walks, or to have her wake me up on the weekends so I could take her out. That day will come, but for now my memories of her are way too hard to let go. Perhaps in the future we will get another dog, but Nina will never be replaced. Many dogs play nifty tricks, that was not Nina. She might have fetched a couple of things that I threw for her in the 12+ years we were together, but by in large she would want me to get it from her. She had a mind of her own and I always new that; her "trick" was to touch people's heart, and she did that with great mastery. Being a "rottie" would at first make people be afraid of her, but one look into her eyes and you could see her heart, and it was big. Perhaps that is what did her in the end: after all the kindness she displayed in life,her heart finally had enough and stopped. As my son suggested "she is up in the clouds and will one day come down to be with us again". I will be looking forward to that day.