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| abut EVE |
| One day, I went to a dog academy with one of my friends, just for fun. Guys of the academy trained several dogs without any special features. They look just dogs. When I was at the fence seeing dogs, one of them rushed toward me. “Scared?” asked a trainer, “yes” I replied. I was surprised, scared and could not make a move. The guy told me that the dog thought I was his (or her) owner. This was the day when I first met Labrador Retriever. It was a big dog, big attractive dog. I decided to have one. Waiting for her birth, I met her with in the midst of spring, April 1990. Shivering small creature tucked in a blanket on the lap of my aunt, she was Eve. It was my first time to see a certificate of pedigree. There were series of names of Eve's ancestors with records of championship. “Aphrodia of Southcountry” was the name of the certificate for Eve. My parents were in Tokyo at that time and I phoned them that Eve did this and that everyday. They thought I was out of mind because of Eve. When they came back from Tokyo, I picked up them with Eve. My parents were captives of Eve at first sight. Father was a dog person and he was so happy to see her. It was the first time to see each other but Eve sat on my mother's lap as if it was the reserved seat. Since then, a special relation was founded between my mother and Eve. My husband also loved her and it was her he first went to see when he came home. Every morning, she waited for me outside of the door. She could sit and lie down in less than two months. After a few months later, there was an accident that Eve scratched herself so hard that she bled. We were keeping her outside but I was very worried about filaria. We thought and agreed to keep her outside at first as it is our habit to keep dogs outside because of Japanese lifestyle. My father was fastidious and said he would never come to my house. But I decided to keep her inside as I thought it would be more fun. Isn't it lovely to see a big dog walking around in the house? Since that day, we had troubles everyday. While we were out, she played a lot of tricks. She gnawed corners of walls, peeled off wall papers, ate a lot at the kitchen when I didn't see and even a sofa at living room was her prey. I had to make calls for carpenter many times. She was a trouble maker but she impressed me her smartness. Maybe I should not put things within her reach and maybe I should have trained her well. As a consequence, things in my house were replaced without her reach and turned out to be a well arranged interior. On the other hand, I was impressed with her unbelievable warm and kind character. When we took a walk with my family, she frequently looked back to my mother and her sister who walked behind us. She cared if they are with us. When Nana, Eve's daughter, ran to my small nephew, Eve always came and protected him from collision. There were many examples of this kind. After being a wild but sweet puppy, she had a chance to meet with a dog of noble blood. He was a black Labrador named Bill from Sandringham Tramp. Later on, Eve had puppies and one of them became a new member of our family. She was Nana. |
| abut NANA |
| Very naughty and very smart, it was Nana. Eve was gentle and sweet hearted but Nana was on the contrary. I was puzzled with the difference. She was always high-spirited and was ready to take up a quarrel. When a dog barked at Nana, she never could ignore it but instantly she took the field. Eve, on the contrary, never cared a dog barking at her. Nana liked play with slippers and destroyed a lot of them. She stuck to them not only at puppy age but long after that. Such big different characters between mother and daughter! I thought Eve was the character of Labrador Retriever but Nana was her daughter. Nana was a beautiful dog having a pearl-white coat, fascinating black eyes and nose. She reacted sharply to ways of speaking, laughing and gestures of my family. She was smart and shrewd. She liked running, retrieving ball in a beautiful way and it was fun to see. Nana was totally different in her character from her mother Eve but I loved both of them so much. When Nana was out on the field, she wanted play and retrieve ball endlessly. She could run so fast and I was always impressed with her elegant way to run. Eve was a guide dog and Nana was a field dog. She needed sufficient exercise otherwise she easily lost appetite. I had to walk with her more than one hour everyday. It was not very easy to do so as we lived in downtown but I had chances to meet people. Thanks to Nana walking with me, I greeted and chatted with unknown people who seemed loved dogs very much. Nana carried flowers in a basket, small umbrella when it looked to be rainy. Many people stopped and say hi to us. |