January 26th 2006

Today we lost our beloved Ezrah. Just over 7 months after we discovered maligne mammary cancer. She was only 8 years and 1 month old.
We tried to stop the cancer with medication and fishoil and for a long time we thought things went well. She was running in the team, was happy and cheerfull. Untill last Tuesday. She screamed when I took her harnas of and once home she flew into her kennel not wanting to come out. That same night at the vet it became pretty obvious that she lost the battle ....
To give us and the dogs some space, we made an appointment with the vet to put her to sleep this coming weekend. But yesterday she had this look in her eyes which told us that it was enough. The next morning the tumor bursted. I took her to the vet at 14.00 hours and it was over at 14.30 hours. She died while being in my arms, she was calm, it was peacefull. I took her home, because Will had to say goodbye and so did the other dogs. It was heartbreaking. After this Will and I brought her to the animal cremation service. She will be cremated on Friday at 14.30 hrs, exactly 24 hours after she died.

Our world has fallen apart ...

Here is Ezrah's story:

Ezrah was born on December 26th 1997. Although coming from the same breeder as our other dogs, Ezrah is from different lines. Her parents are from Denmark. Ezrah is a very sweet dog, has the built of her Mum and the character of her Dad. We always call her our Chinese Girl, because her eyes are so almondshaped.

Ezrah has had a very bad experience on her very first cartrace. She was bitten in head by a dog of a passing team. It took a long time for her to get over this. And she is still very much aware of other dogs passing her. She sometimes has a big mouth, showing that she is not "scared".

When pulling the cart she can be distracted easily, but Berber was the same when he was younger. But in the snow she is wonderful. She has run lead with Berber in Sweden at X-mas 1999.

Being the youngest for 2 years, she still had puppymanners, but the moment she saw Sterre, Ezrah turned into an adult dog. She is mothering all over Sterre. Sometimes we find it a pity that she is no longer the carefree Ezrah, but it is also interesting to watch how dogs can change in a pack.

By time it is August 2000, Ezrah is all used to her role as Sterre's Mum. She doesn't even want to come to work anymore. She wants to stay at home with Sterre. Together they lay in the crate. We call them "Trull and Trullie".

Here we see Ezrah and Sterre in our backyard waiting for Winter to come.