Our pets are only with us for part of our lives, and yet they remain in our hearts forever. When Kimbra moved in with her new family at the age of nine weeks, she got off to a rough start with the family cat and in terms of her own health. Read on to find out how her life developed – and how she became a much-loved member of the family.
Our dog Alisha sadly had to be put to sleep in summer 2010 at the age of ten. Since we’d had dogs in our family for more than 30 years, we started looking for a new puppy of the same breed after a period of mourning for Alisha – and finally found what we were looking for in October.
After a few visits to the breeder, we decided on a little brown dog called Kimbra, who came home with us on 6 December 2010 at nine weeks old. Our young cat Ninoush was not impressed with the new four-legged addition to the family – and made this quite clear. We had to keep the two of them apart at first; Kimbra was only little, and we were worried Ninoush might hurt her.
Unfortunately, Kimbra brought Giardia home with her from the breeder – a parasitic disease that can quickly become dangerous in young dogs due to dehydration. This meant her first few weeks with us brought several bouts of severe diarrhoea, a lot of medication and a good deal of worrying. But two months later, Kimbra had fully recovered – and she mostly stayed healthy for the next six years. She was a gentle, rather reserved dog, but she was very interested in other dogs and loved to play with them until well into old age. She loved people too, even children, especially those she already knew!
We were regular visitors to our local dog school, initially for general obedience classes for Kimbra, and later because we enjoyed chatting to the other owners so much. In 2013, we passed the entry examination for the “Prevent a bite” project – an initiative in which dogs visit nurseries and schools to teach children how to treat dogs respectfully. We participated with three other teams every week for ten years.
One fine morning in May 2017, we saw something was very wrong with Kimbra – she was listless, didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to drink and her gums were pale, whitish and shiny. After a blood test, the vet found that Kimbra’s red blood cell count was very low, and we took her straight to the animal hospital in Hünenberg. Kimbra spent eleven days there fighting for her life, requiring three blood transfusions.
As there was no evidence of infection or a tick bite, the conclusion was that she was suffering from an autoimmune disease which was causing her red blood cells to destroy each other.
Thankfully, we had taken out wau-miau pet insurance back in March 2014 on the recommendation of a friend. In retrospect, this was a very wise decision, as it covered a large chunk of Kimbra’s vet bills – including the medication that she needed for several months once she was out of hospital.
In her later years, from about 2020 onwards, Kimbra suffered from a number of other age-related health problems, such as spondylosis and osteoarthritis in her front legs, which were alleviated with medication and injections in her elbows. In 2022, a vet diagnosed her with Cushing’s syndrome, a hormonal disorder caused by overproduction of the stress hormone cortisol. Once again, wau-miau pet insurance covered a significant part of the treatment costs – a huge relief for us!
We tried to give Kimbra a dog-friendly life for as long as possible, which hopefully we managed to do. She went for walks every day, even as they gradually got shorter and involved longer breaks, and she still enjoyed meeting other dogs until the very end. She loved the water and went for a paddle in the lake every day, although she never wanted to swim!
Even on the penultimate day of her life, she paddled in the Lützelsee on Christmas Eve and rolled around in the snow. Those images remain deeply etched in our hearts – she was a wonderful dog, and we will never forget her!
On 26 December 2024, Kimbra took herself off into the garden and stayed there, lying on the ground, completely listless. As it was a bank holiday, we took her back to the animal hospital in Hünenberg. They did an ultrasound, which revealed Kimbra had developed several tumours on her spleen and liver that had now ruptured.
With heavy hearts, we agreed we had to let her go – at the ripe old age of 14 years, 2 months and 3 weeks. We are eternally grateful for the many years we spent together, although there will always be a great, Kimbra-shaped hole in our lives. We miss her very much.
