Quinnie was our little Japanese Spitz lady. She should have been 12 years old in 13th of February 2007 but she got matrix inflammation and a very large tumor so we needed to put her asleep. Now she is our little white angel dog. We miss her very much and she will always be in our heart.

Quinnie was my first dog which I got after about a lifetime nagging while I still lived at home. I have always wanted a dog as long as I can remember, but my mother was much less delighted by the idea. I got budgie instead, but then she became allergic to them which gave her a pretty good free excuse why we couldn't have a dog. I myself have always had eczema at my arms so she also used that as a reason. But the main reason according to her was after all that she didn't want to take care of any animal, even though I explained that it was indeed I who would take care of the dog.

I have had many plans and ideas for substitutes animals, such as turtles, fish, frogs, guinea pigs, cats, rabbits, etc. Despite my well-planned budget estimates the only animals I got was the fish and tadpole. I breed frog litter into small frogs in the aquarium. When I think back, probably the best idea was the rabbit that would survive the winter outdoors. Then it would be no allergic issues. In retrospect it was probably good that I didn't got a rabbit though... it is perhaps not the funniest animal after all. Not if it's a dog that you really want and wish for! Anyway, the summer of 1995, the whole family (except me) went to Norway and visits some relatives. There they saw the world's cutest dogs, Japanese Spitz. When they came home and told me about the dogs I was not slow to immediately launch the nagging. My "extra" dad thought it would be nice with a dog in the house after all and in a moment of weakness my mom said yes and 14 years nagging was over (if you can nag from the birth so to speak).

Nobody in the family except I had some knowledge of how to handle a dog, and my experience wasn't huge. I started to search for a Japanese puppy and found a kennel that I thought was rather near. Later it showed that I had misunderstood the whole thing and that the kennel was far south. Anyway the breeder had a six month old puppy left and she was on sale because she had defect tail. The breeder said that she had send a lot of puppies by airplane and that it never had been any problem so said and done. When we came to the airport to pick up Quinnie we had to go around to the warehouse where all the packages and stuff was. It was a simple warehouse in a own little building and it was really noisy and also trucks driving around. There she sat in a small cage and shook. She was sitting in my arms on the way home, but she was still jittery. I think Quinnies fear of firecrackers, rattling, going by car and other loud sounds is largely due to the flight incident. I have learned of my mistake and will never send a puppy alone with airplane.

It was the story of how I got my first own dog. I took some courses at the dog club with Quinnie and I read books about training dogs. Despite my not-too-big dog knowledge when I got her, I had to say that things worked out quite fine anyway. Quinnie is a part of me, we grew up together, and she will always have a special place in my heart.