Man's Best Friend

On our way home from the Humane Society.  Our first picture of Kita.

In the 2 weeks since Kita's passing, Shane and I have turned to each other dozens of times and said, "Remember how Kita used to..."  I realize that time quickly fades memories and sadly, soon many of those memories will be lost if I don't record them.  The following post will mean little to most but so much to us since it is all about memories of Kita's habits, one time moments, antics, and all things pertaining to her.

Hiking on our path above our house in Utah

- Remember how Kita would reluctantly go get in the tub when we told her to "go take a bath?"
(Kita knew the difference between "take a shower" and "take a bath."  She also knew "go to bed," "get your ball," and "get your kong."  Also she would bring you anything as long as you pointed at it and said, "bring it here."  She was incredibly smart!)

- Remember how Kita would crouch down and flop on the side of her arm so she could reach the little scrap of food we dropped?

- She was always ok with the things we did to her - including putting side walk chalk on her face.  We made sure she was socialized to being annoyed so that she would be great with our kids.  So sad she never got that chance.

- Remember how Kita would sneak onto the carpet in Utah and lick your face to wake up you if you took a nap on the couch?

Playing with Fritz - the neighbor Belgian Malenois.  Those two knew how to play rough.

She would rest her head on ANYTHING!

The 4 corners.  How many dogs do you know that have been in 4 states at once?

- Kita went just about everywhere with us.  She is one of the most well traveled dogs I've ever heard of.  She has been to the French Quarter in Louisiana, San Antonio and Dallas Texas, the beach in Mississippi, Phoenix Arizona, New Mexico (just the corner), Colorado and Utah.  On top of all that she flew in an airplane with me from Dallas to Denver. 

- Remember how Kita would all of a sudden stop playing and lay down in any water by where she was playing?  Remember how she would drink the water while she layed in it? 

- Shane, remember how you would have Kita get up on anything that was tall and take a picture of her?

- Remember how Buster and Kita were in their "grumpy club" together?

- Remember how we had to teach Kita to stick her head out of the car window?

-Remember how Dirk called Kita "Sneaky Sneaky" because she would all of a sudden show up right next to you out of now where while working on the farm?

When I asked Shane about this pic he said, "She was walking along next to the harvester and it started to rain, so I opened the door."

Hunting for rocks and fish.

-Kita loved rocks.  She also loved big logs.  The bigger the rock or log, the more she loved it.  One time in San Antonio we found a river that had flooded it's banks and as a result was full of downed trees.  We would throw a stick in and Kita would bring us back a tree.  We laughed a bunch over that.

- Remember how Kita peed in our apartment in San Antonio after she had played at that river for hours and after holding it for over an hour?  I felt so bad but she was so obedient to hold it for as long as she did.

Kita inspected anything that a rodent could fit inside.

-Remember how Kita would pick the smallest dog bed to sleep in?  Remember how she would fall out eventually during the night?

-Remember how we could take Kita off her leash and she would listen and stay by us? 

-Remember Kita's "bat ears" when she would stick her head out the window?

Digging on the beach in Mississippi

Her wrinkles made her look perpetually worried.

 - Most nights we had Kita "stay" on her bed while we ate.  Sometimes we would get lazy and let her wander the house while we ate.  On those nights she would inevitably sneak under the table and put her head in our lap hoping for a bit of table scrap.  Those puppy dog eyes got me nearly every time.  She knew how to play her cute card to the max!

- Remember Kita would rest her head on the back of your seat in the car like she was a parrot on your shoulder?

- Remember that princess hat I found on sale after Halloween one year, and how every year around Halloween we put it on her?  I loved that hat - the fake blonde hair was AWESOME!

- Remember how we left Kita with David and Becca Page and they taught her how to "play dead" in 2 days?  People were always impressed with her tricks.  She could do the typical, sit, lay, stay, and shake.  In addition to that she could bow, play dead, give 10, howl, speak, spin, dance and army crawl.

- Remember how excited Kita was when you would have her "sit" after being told to "lay?"

Leaping into my parents lake to get her favorite 2x4

- Remember how how we first heard Kita howl when she was opening that hilarious talking ball for Christmas?  She was ripping the paper off and the ball started talking - "come here puppy" "ouch! don't do that!"  - and then we heard a little howl from Kita.  Thanks to youtube videos of huskies howling,  Kita learned how to howl on command and it became one of her most beloved tricks.

- Remember how Kita would howl anytime she heard a siren?  It was so much fun to go to parades with her given this quirk.  The fire trucks would go by and after their deafening sirens had passed Kita's howl would finally be heard and all the people around us would look and smile.

-Remember how excited I was that Kappa and Kita howled at each other?

- Remember how much Kita loved to go snowshoeing?  She would get so excited she would curl her tail and run around.  I loved when she curled her tail in excitement.

- Remember how I sang songs about Kita?  "Little miss-a rick-a-doo.  Nakita Rita roo pooh pooh."  

- Remember how it took Kita a full summer to learn how to swim?  She would stand in the water and paddle her from legs but couldn't figure out quite how to push off so she could actually swim.  Once she finally figured it out, we thought she had it down.  The next summer she started over with the splashing in the shallows.  I laughed every time she did that!

- Remember how Kita would push rocks around the sand box at my parents?  She would dig at them and then every so often she would catch the rock with her paw and fling it behind her.  She would turn around and pounce on the rock before she started to dig at it again.  After repeating that cycle several times, she would carefully pick up the rock and either bring it to us or hold it in her mouth while she cried.  I have no idea what her deal was with rocks, but she sure did love them!

-Remember how the first time Kita experienced water she just walked right off the end of my parents dock?  She had no idea what happened.  The water level was up so it wasn't much of a step down to the water and she thought it was solid.  She disappeared completely under the water for a second but then came up and Shane snatched her out.

- Remember how every time we came back to the farm for a visit we would stop at the end of the driveway and let her out to run?  She knew exactly where she was and she would take off across the sod field and run to the house.

- Remember that time we went to the Anderson's cabin and as we left we had Kita run in front of the car so she could get some exercise?  I loved that she knew just what to do and ran in front of the car.  When she came to that Y in the road she stopped and looked back at us wanting to know which way to go.  We pointed, and she kept on running.

The above picture is one of my favorites.  We always got comments on how pretty Kita was, but when we would take pictures of her we felt like she wasn't very photogenic.  I love how this picture captures how pretty she was as well as her strength and those worry wrinkles on her brow.

We have hundreds of memories of you sweet Kita girl.  You are forever a part of Shane and me.  Thanks for all the smiles, laughs and of course, your love.