Arwa Z. in Memory

ARWA Zevar CS

When you were born it was raining all night long.
Not because it was meant to rain,
but because Heaven was crying to lose his sweetest star!

Your candle of life burned down on September 25, 2000
- much too early and so unexpected for us.
Your light here on earth has forever stopped to shine.
Another small star has began the journey to Briard Heaven.

Since then we know how Heaven felt
the other time - on your birthday.
Fare well, ARWA. You left big emptiness
in our hearts, deep pain and endless sadness.
THANK YOU for the light and life
that you brought to us within the few years
we were allowed to join you.

HD A/A, SchH 1

22. April 1989 - 25. September 2000
Vater: Champ. KUBULA van't Wuitensnest (Tschechien/Import Belgien * Champion CZ)
Mutter: DWINA od Rezného potoka (Tschechien)

Arwa only came to me when she was four and a half years old. I had met and fallen in love with her after she was bred to my Sándor (Rec. Champ. SÁNDOR von Anitzberg) in 1992 and gave birth to 12 puppies on October 20th. Every week, friends and I visited Arwa and her puppies and fed them. Arwa and her puppies lived in a cellar; during heavy rain, water pooled next to the whelping box. There was no heating, and Arwa was surrounded by nothing but junk... It's unimaginable that a dog had to raise her puppies under such conditions. Apparently, no one visited Arwa very often, because she was always incredibly happy when we came. This was probably why, even though she didn't know us, she greeted us joyfully on our very first visit (during the puppies' first week of life), and we were readily allowed to touch her puppies and even take them out of the whelping box. She herself enjoyed the attention and affection we gave her – something that was usually in short supply for this lovable dog. Since some puppies from this litter were to go to Austria, we made sure their ears were properly taped, brought the puppies toys, supplied the deworming medication, and arranged for their vaccinations so we could be sure that all the dogs had received the most important vaccinations before they left. I myself took in one of Arwa's daughters (Arwa Betkin dvor) - this dog moved in with me at Christmas 1992.

Contact with Arwa never broke off (thankfully, because that's how I learned about her owner's plans). I had grown very fond of this dog because of her sweet nature and the trust she placed in me. After another litter, I learned that she was to be euthanized because her owner hadn't had the success with her Briard breeding that she had apparently hoped for, and no one else wanted her. I didn't hesitate for a moment and picked Arwa up when her puppies were seven weeks old. She immediately got into the car and didn't turn around when her former owner tried to say goodbye. That told me a lot about the relationship between the owner and the dog.

Once home, Arwa was immediately given a thorough bath, which didn't bother her at all. When she was then introduced to my other dogs, she briefly looked around and then went straight to my Marko 

instead of one of the two Briards. She had lived with German Shepherds, and that was probably the reason. After playing in the garden, she wanted to go down to the basement, but she wouldn't take a single step into the house. This showed that she had never been allowed to enter her former owner's house. With a lot of coaxing and plenty of treats, I was finally able to convince Arwa that every room in my house was open to dogs and that she could roam freely everywhere. The poor thing, at four and a half years old, had to learn how to walk on tile floors. ......

Until his death, Marko was Arwa's undisputed favorite. The two shared such a deep friendship that after Marko's death, I was afraid Arwa might soon follow him. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but she did search for him for several days.

With Arwa, I had my A litter de la Maison du Garde-Barrière - after my Sándor. The litter was actually planned for later, since she had just had puppies, but Sándor was faster than me, and so it happened. She gave birth to 11 puppies, four of which were sadly stillborn. And now it became clear how close Arwa's relationship with Marko was: from the very first moment, he was allowed into the whelping room and to see the puppies, while Sándor and his daughter Arwa B. were growled at if they even approached the door. It was Marko who always stepped in when Arwa took her well-deserved breaks from the puppies and was always there to help her with raising them.

Arwa was an uncomplicated, exceptionally easy-to-train, and affectionate dog. She let acquaintances, friends, and strangers into the house when I was present, but she showed a completely different side when acquaintances or friends who had already been inside opened the garden gate without me and wanted to enter the garden or the house: they were guarded until I came and told her that everything was alright. At night, she would alert her to every suspicious noise, but remained perfectly calm if someone simply walked past the house. Her greatest feat was once alerting her to a smoldering fire in the house across the street at night, even though all the windows in the house were closed due to the weather. This dog had an instinct that none of my other dogs ever had. And another event that will always stay with me: the husband of her former owner showed up unannounced one day. Lacking German and English skills, he had brought along his wife's cousin, who had previously been Arwa's protection dog handler. Suddenly, they wanted money for Arwa, since I had had a litter with her. Arwa greeted the cousin (she had always had a good relationship with him, which I could see for myself when I took her to Slovakia for protection work), but the former owner was growled and barked at fiercely and wasn't given a chance to even set foot in the garden, even though I would have readily agreed to a discussion with him. That very quickly and convincingly ended the matter of money for Arwa for the man. From then on, I never heard from or saw her former owners again.

Arwa, too, was called across the Rainbow Bridge far too soon. Late in the evening of September 24, 2000, her legs suddenly gave out, and she couldn't stand or walk when I tried to help her. I spent the entire night by Arwa's side, and the next morning I made the difficult journey to the vet to let her go.

You and Marko were the best of friends. Five years and ten days after your separation, you two are reunited—on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. We'll see each other there again... someday...

Arwa's special success: