 Crystalcreek Alaskan Malamutes and German Shepherds | sitemap | log in
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Sky Crystalcreek Spirit of Jess
(Elkanna Staffa x Trialex Lunar Eclipse)
13/08/2007 – 04/06/2021
 Sky was my planned puppy from 2006, she was kept from Jade and Staffa's litter. It was the hardest choice I had to make, both the two girl pups had something I loved about them. I would have kept them both, but for the fact that one of them was promised to a friend. Nine weeks of deliberation and when they came to pick her up, I still hadn't made my mind up. Two hours later and I just had to go pick one up it was that “eeny meeny miny mo” moment. I named her after my first GSD, Jessie. She has turned out to be an absolute sweetheart with a super loving nature. If she has one fault, it’s that she is obsessed with Gizmo, following her everywhere and trying to play with her, much to Gizmo's annoyance.
She has a weird habit of holding on to her Mum's collar when they are out and almost using it to play tug of war, it is usually when they are playing ball or all excited at going out, or at feeding time - bizarre. It can be so bad that I don’t take them together if we go to the field so Jade can chase the ball without being harassed. She does it a bit to Charley too at the start of a walk. Unusually, for a German Shepherd, Sky has no interest in balls or toys.
She is very intelligent and switched on and has great potential. We had a go at agility on my equipment and she was ok, but we really need to attend proper classes sadly there are no agility clubs up here to help. She has taken over Gipsy’s place on the bed too, sharing it with Jade.
Sometime during Sky’s second season her brother Quinn somehow managed to mate with her. It must have been a very quick in and out as they were only together when I was around and if he got close to her I only had to shout and he would back off – they certainly never tied and you couldn’t say he was infatuated with her in any way. I can only think that in a moment of lapsed concentration he managed to catch her very quickly. The first I knew about it was when I woke up one morning and my very slim dog was suddenly very fat – she had dropped. It was just after I had lost Star and I was due to go to a show with Rio (the champ show where she won her class), I wondered if she was having a phantom, when we got back I took her to the vets and after a scan he confirmed she was indeed pregnant and we worked out she must be about 7 weeks, too late to do anything about it now. So reluctantly I let her have the litter. A first time related mating won’t produce pups with problems, but it is still something I would have prevented if I had known. It just goes to show that even if you think you are being so careful and responsible, accidents can happen. The result was 8 puppies of which I ended up keeping 3 – Charley, Zak and Merlin – and, despite the circumstances, it is a cracking litter.
Sky was a great mum to the pups, she had a great nature all round and joined us on group dog walks which I organised to raise money for dogs in shelters, until her last year of life when she would not tolerate any other dog near her. She outlived all her babies apart from one and was the last of her siblings. She had the funny at first, but then frustrating habit of barking at any dog on the telly (latterly any animal on the telly LOL), she was a great guarder as were all her siblings and babies, letting me know whenever anyone walked past the house. In the last year of her life, her bowel or rectum started to struggle so she was on stool softeners for a long time to help things pass, the last 6 months or so her back legs started to go as well and she had arthritis on the front elbows, but she could still get around, up the stairs, on the bed and sofa and although we had to stop going out for potters, she still looked happy and had a good quality of life, but the pooping problem got worse and I knew she hated being dirty, then on her last week, the diarrohea just didn't stop despite medication and she started being sick and going off her food - my biggest sign that she had had enough. She went very peacefully, but my heart has broken, she was the end of an era for me and has left a huge hole.
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