We will always, each of us, have our memories of our Kat. Reading some of the notes in response to Darlah’s post I thought I’d offer these few thoughts of my own. Thank you all for your kind wishes. We appreciate each one.
We all learn at some point in our lives to deal with death. The world is falling apart around us with a global Pandemic and here we are mourning the loss of a dog, our Katsura. For those that are not dog people, stop reading now. You won’t understand our grief. I’m writing this to our Talemaker families and to everyone that shares their lives with a dog as a beloved member of their family.
Yesterday afternoon we did the last good thing we could do for the dog that has been a part of our lives for so many years. We put him down. Writing, you cannot tell that tears are falling from my eyes as I type. You can but imagine (if you’ve been there yourselves) the pain and grief Darlah and I felt as we cradled him on his last journey at our side. This was our Kat. We shared so many wonderful memories with him, so many firsts.
He was a champion show dog that loved to strut his stuff.
He was a champion swimmer and loved leaping into the swimming pool with wild abandon so that he could meet me the second I surfaced.
He passed his Good Neighbour certification during a Rottweiler Specialty surrounded by that power breed and couldn’t have cared less as he pranced in, around and between them to come to me on the other side of the ring.
He was always the first to know when any of his girls (and they were all his girls as far as he was concerned) were coming into season and when they were leaving it because he was a stud!
For years he played magnificently with puppies, many of them his own, until one unfortunate time one puppy mistook that thing hanging from his body as a nipple and tried to feed. After he landed back down on the ground having teleported to the ceiling, he never again frolicked with the puppies but always kept a close watch on them out of the corner of his eye.
He loved us all unconditionally, as dogs do, and we love him back the very same way.
May he rest in peace.
Today is a tribute to Kat. I apologize and will play catchup with a gallery tomorrow. We lost Katsura today. See his bio. 
Kat and his mom, Risa.
Kat's after swim run. He also used to dry himself on a towel. It was a riot!
He always waited for Nathan to swim. It was something only they shared.
He was the first havanese to ever dive into a swimming pool. He was great at it.
Darlah