Rika was born March 1998. Kayleigh our/my first GSD had gone to sleep in Sept 1998 aged just over 13 years, a great age in some peoples eyes, but far to soon for us. We decided that we would wait until our second child was born (James was 2 and I was 5 months pregnant) before we would even think about another dog in our lifes. I just decided to phone Kayleighs breeder in the October to see when she had litters due, when she informed me about a 7 month old pup which needed a home as she was stuck in a kennel and all her siblings were long gone. Suffice to say we drove straight down to Somerset and collected our new family member. She stunk to high heaven and crawled everywhere on her belly as she was so scared of being indoors, but settled in very quickly and from the very first night she has slept beside us, normally on her bed next to ours.

When Rika first came into our lives she was our only pet, our four legged family has grown dramatically over the years and she has welcomed them all into our home. She adores new babies, from kittens to ducklings and is never happier than when she can 'nanny' something. When our pet chicken hatched a duckling in May 2010 she spent hours guarding it from any possible danger which pleased the chicken who could roam more freely!

She has always looked after the children and has never shown any signs of aggression to anyone. When she was 7 she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, which is why we decided that the hotel needed to have a hydrotherapy pool so that she could swim regularly. She also has a condition which makes her bottom swollen and is on very expensive medication called Atopica and Nisarol to control this, along with her monthly pain relief and Accupuncture I think we must pay our vets mortgage!! She is definately worth every penny.

Unfortunately Rika left us for Rainbow Bridge on 31st January 2011. We will never forget you darling girl. x