Cherokee Wind's Lakota Sioux

"Kota-Mota"
 
What a fateful day it was at the S.P.C.A. back in 1994...I had just finished walking dogs and was about to go home when someone told me about an Australian Shepherd who just came into adoption...only to leap up into the chain-linked fence and break both the bones in her front leg.  I saw that beautiful face and said "for sure, this is somebody's dog".  I took her to a vet to get emergency surgery, because the shelter was unable to keep her or fix her leg.  I tried to find her owner...and even tried to place her with a good friend....but it soon was clear that she WAS somebody's dog...she was ours!  Kota and I soon began to do competitive obedience and I got my first obedience ribbon with her.  We then tried agility, and Kota enjoyed it.  While I didn't have much experience at the time, she was patient with me while I learned how to handle an enthusiastic and bouncy dog.  I'll never forget how she liked to howl at the top of the dogwalk, ping-pong off the table, jump over tunnels, and grab the cones and run around.  Kota loved to make people laugh and she taught me that agility requires a sense of humor...and humility.  Surprisingly, we later found out that lameness in her other foot was due to an old injury (perhaps as a puppy), where it looked like she had torn her toe and it had been put back with stainless steel sutures.  Those sutures had broken into small pieces after a few years of agility, so Kota became Greg's lap dog at home. Kota loved to swim, and her first experience was at Durant Park.  We were on the dock and she saw a small brown and white dog on the shore.  Since she used to love to run the fence line with Buster, the Beagle, from next door, she took a running leap off the dog and plopped straight into the water. (Just like you'd see in a cartoon.)  She sure made us laugh and loved to swim from that day on. Kota was famous for her "woo-woo" greeting when we came home and she always hopped up and down in glee over feeding time...even as she got older and moved around less agilely.  It was very sad to see her age, and get canine dementia, but we knew that she still enjoyed her food, her bones, and her belly rubs...right up until the day she left us. 
We'll miss you, Kota Sioux, but I know that you are not in pain now and your creative and clever spirit is free.
Sketch of Lakota drawn by Mariah
Lakota's Obedience & Agility Video