Elk Plain Princess Little Bear CGC, HIC

(Kita Louise Smith-Zimmerman)

July 4th, 1991 - January 30, 2004

Kita has left me. Yesterday...I just feel so incredibly damn sad. I thought it would be easier...her being older and all.

It isn't and I miss her energy and I miss her calm and dignified manner and I miss her pretty bear like face. I don't know if my heart can take this too often.......

About 10 years ago my sister and family decided to move to Louisiana for a couple years due my brother in laws transfer in jobs. I told the family I would watch their Chow Mix Kita while they got settled. About a year went by and it was never quite the time to send her...too late, too hot, too whatever. One day while I was working outside: I watched her keep rein over Zephyr and Zodiac and it dawned on me, I needed her to stay. Up until that point, Kita and I had a pleasant but guarded relationship but once I called my sister and told her I wanted Kita to stay with me and the boys...our relationship and commitment changed immediately. Unlike with the boys, Kita was not just my little girl, she was my peer, my equal and she well knew it.

Last week Kita started having trouble getting up. She was now 12 and 1/2 years old...I thought we had more time, I as wrong. One day she seemed fine, the next she was crippled and other complications had set in. After several series of tests it looked like a couple things, she had injured her leg (Or it may have been cancer in the bone) and she may have developed liver cancer. The blood tests sure indicated it. I still felt it wasn't her day to move on so have been nursing her and monitoring her as she progressively grew worse. Last night was a bad night, she couldn't walk without crying and this is one stoic dog and that in itself was a bad sign. She began throwing up, quit eating and her breathing was labored. I laid awake with her all night and by morning, she told me in her dignified manner, it was time. This lovely little Chow mix, who looked like a small black bear, who was dominant over all these boys and who showed more grace and dignity than I have ever seen in another dog, She is gone and besides the sorrow, I actually feel just lost without her.

She had attended and assisted in the raising of 5 Berner boys and after the 2nd BMD puppy. a bit under protest. But we did it together and here I am without the only female energy I had in this home. Whatever will we do without her. Many of you did not know her and some of you had met her. No doubt she went right to work in putting your dogs in place, it wasn't from meanness, it was her strategy, total dominance. A characteristic of her one side...the Chow. But I loved her so and as lame as it sounds...I just want my Kita back. Of all the boys she raised she favored that Zodiac boy. She was crazy over him and mourned his loss as I did. And today as she passed from this world to the next, I held a vision of him greeting her once again. It is my greatest hope that they are together again and one day, we all find one another together once more. I guess when you get a dog, it's a given they will one day break your heart in leaving and that one day you have to keep your commitment to helping them ease to the next transition. Although I am hazy with an aching heart, I am just so thankful to have shared these many years with such a delighted dog, my Kita. I liked to finish with a favorite verse of a well loved poem: Since you will never be forgotten, I pledge to you today, a hallowed place within my heart, Is where you'll always stay. Rest well my girl and keep that Zodi in line. Until we meet again. Thank you friends for listening.

Terri, Zephyr, Zaltana, Zion, Zane

Zodiac & Kita, gone from this world but not from this heart.