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VALKRISTA ESPANOLA our TANGO. 12.01.2001
- 01.06.2004
Tango was born on 12.01.2001, the product of a union between LEESWAY MAN
ABOUT TOWN imported from Australia (WALLABY), and VALKRISTA POPINJAY (JAYJAY)
who whelped 8 puppies. This litter was born at the same time as an oil
tanker grounded close to the Galapagos Islands. A map of the islands in the
newspaper showed potential for a themed litter. I selected Tango from the 4
girls in the litter, particularly for
her lovely head. She came to strongly resemble her sire, Wallaby.
Tango grew amazingly, and ultimately was as big as her sire and up to 2"
taller than our other girls. She dwarfed her mother. A calm quiet natured
girl, she was entirely dependable and very lovable without demanding
attention as so many of our Valls do. She was very easy to live with, and I
looked forward to having her become part of the breeding team. That turned
out not to be in nature\'92s grand plan. She had 3 attempts at having
litters. One produced nothing, one produced a single dog pup, and finally
when run with a skilled dog to give every chance of
seeing if she could have an acceptable litter, she came up with just two,
Kalypso and Karaoke.
With a rare breed and a limited genepool it seemed
irresponsible to breed low fertility into that pool, so Tango was spayed. It
was arranged she would go to a couple who had had one of our Vallhund girls
for 4 years. They had lost their girl earlier in 2004, as a result of a
heart problem. It seemed to me this would be a
liason blessed by heaven. She was collected the Thursday before Easter and
driven to her new home. On Easter Sunday she ran off and was at large for
about 7 weeks, until she was run down and killed by a train on 2 June 2004,
just the day before her breeders arrived to try to rescue her, having driven
for 700 kms overnight to make that attempt . A heartbreaking ending to an
all too short life
By Rose Madsen, New Zealand
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The Rainbow Bridge