Emoji

About Emoji

Emoji was born 01-08-2017 at Bongani’s Rhodesian Ridgebacks in Germany. 

I was lucky enough to be present at birth, just as I had been with the birth of her mother Cajou and our Cara, Cajou’s full sister and their mother Amila. Eight gorgeous puppy’s were born, all between 450 and 550 grams and Cajou turned out to be a very natural mother with all the right instincts. Very gentle and caring of her pups.

As all pups were already spoken for it seemed save to go over for some vitamin P(uppy) on a regular basis. And one little girl, “miss purple” who ha stood out from the crowd since birth quickly captured my heart. Once she was able to walk she turned into a little happy tornado, absolutely fearless and stubborn as a mule, not impressed by anything new she got introduced to.

By the time the pups turned five weeks old cancelations were coming in, two girls and a boy were canceled and one of those girls was miss purple. She was posted on Facebook with the photo’s I made, was spoken for and then canceled again…

And I just couldn’t get her out of my head, each time I saw her photo with “available” written next to it, I felt sick to my stomach. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who liked her, Lieven suggested to go over again for a cuddle, well aware of the danger, and again… And little miss Purple became our Emoji.

When we finally got to take her home little miss whirlwind turns our living room into chaos. She was the exact opposite of Cara. As easy to raise as she had been, as exhilarating and exhausting was raising Emoji.

Daico turned out to be her biggest love from day one and the feeling was mutual for 100% and then some. Where he went, she was, as he did, she tried to. He was her Guru and save harbour. All our sepsis about putting a 13 year old up with a puppy were washed away. He absolutely loved her, as did we. 

She has grown up to be a gorgeous young girl in both conformation and character, happy and gentle, avoiding conflict but protective and brave at the same time. Aloof with strangers but quick to decide who can be trusted. Off all our Ridgebacks so fas she’s the one with the biggest “will to please” and recall. Except when there’s a fresh track or worse, game in sight… she’s is, like Daico was, a hunter “pur sang”.

To give her the opportunity to act on this passion in a save way we go lure coursing with her. The RRCN, our breed club, organises these day’s multiple times a year during the season and she absolutely loves it ending up within the fastest three dogs of the day most of the time.

When se turned three years old, vague symptoms started to show every now and then. After a year of searching, bloodwork, X-ray’s, NSAIDS, fysio, osteopath etc an MRI finally gave us the devastating answer. A large mass was growing in her C6 vertebrae, inoperable and not responsive to any treatment. There was nothing we could do or could have done.

On 07-04-2022 we had to take the hardest decision a loving dog owner ever has to make. She was only 4,5 years old. She left a hole I am still struggling to get out off… ???