I often mention Anne, my Rhodesian Ridgeback friend, in blog posts. Anne has a wonderful Ridgeback named Kira. Kira has been around for most of my agility life. I remember Anne getting Kira as a puppy and later competing along side Katie and Travis. We often traveled to shows together and I had the pleasure of getting to run Kira a few times on the fly when Anne had scheduling conflicts in other rings. We even qualified a couple of times. Kira is very special. She is the 2nd Ridgeback to earn a Master Agility Championship (she is probably one of the first few to get a 2nd one as well). She competed at the AKC Agility Invitational in Long Beach, CA twice and even made it to the finals on her 2nd trip. I know Travis and I were glad to have Anne and Kira with us when we made our trip to California. All in all, Kira has been a super hound always defying the hound stereotype.
Kira is now 10.5 years old. Anne sees that Kira is slowing down and has some of those old age aches and pains. Kira loves agility and wants to keep going, but Anne knows that it is time.
I have never had to decide to retire a super hound. I was not asked when Katie was injured or Travis became fatally ill. It just was. No choice in the matter. In fact, Teresa is the only greyhound I have chosen to retire and it was actually a relief. So we were all very sad as we watched Kira's last agility run in competition.Kira qualified and placed third. We wiped our tears and enjoyed some cake. We will miss you at the agility trials, Kira.
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