Athena

I started writing this. And it just turned into one long crawl. So. The summary here of her spirit. And then. The crawl through all the things I can remember.

Athena Decembers Shadow. Aka Athena Ballerina. Aka Beautiful Girl. Aka Stinker. Aka Lady Loo. Aka Baby girl.
31-December-2009 to 10th May 2024. 14 Years, 4 Months, 10 days.

Athena was a soul without peer. Crazy energy even for a boxer. She was strong and fast and loved to explore and to play fight. Like all boxers a comedian. Silly and fun. Cheeky. Everything was always amazing to her. But it was her mind and personality that were very different. Endless fearless curiosity and confidence that would get her into trouble when she was younger. And very smart. Those things went hand in hand. The smarts. And the curiosity. Always an independent mind - when she was younger, incredibly independent that needed some curbing -  she had a plan, an idea, and she would lead, not follow, and loved to figure things out. She relied on being smarter, figuring it out - not always to her benefit. Smart, but not always wise. She was fearless and protective, but was friendly to all she met. She loved meeting people, but her interest was only ever continually guaranteed by a new place to explore. She was the most amazing dog I have met. Very unique of all of them I have encountered, and the smartest in a way that is hard to describe without meeting her at her best. She understood words. Meaning. A sentence would make sense to her. She learned to open latch bolt doors. To untangle her own lead. And understand you. More than Ares ever could - he would look to her to figure it out, then do as she did.

Athena. Tiny. 7 weeks old. 18th Feb 2010

 

Like many boxers she was very expressive. Full of sighs and huffs and side eye. Her huffs were legendary. As much a breath of air as a sign of mood.

Athena was a beautiful soul. So unique. And it is a devastating loss that she is no longer here.

Athena was born in a small village just outside of Norwich. One stop along the local railway line. She was the last born of her litter, turned the wrong way around, and dead on arrival. The owners of her parents were worried they had lost her for good before she had even properly started, and they had to panic and massage to get her going. And she woke up kicking into the world.

When I met her some six weeks later, her dad was something of a lunatic, even for a boxer - this would be where Athena got it from - and her mom was as sweet and chilled as anything. Of all her litter mates she bumbled across the floor to me, confident, unphased, and proceeded to attack my laces and undo my shoes. I tied them up. She undid them again.

I chose her. 

So pretty. Flashy markings. White socks. Big white chest. Paint brush tail, its tip white, like it had been dipped in a paint pot. A white spot on her bum.

Just a pup

She had the softest coat. It was one of the first things people would say when they went to stroke her. Even on her penultimate day, some kind stranger helped carry her into the car. She is so soft he remarked. No guard hairs. Her fur was soft and downy, going towards angora. Odd. I used to joke that no one had given the memo to Athena, that boxers were supposed to be short hair, minimal dander. Athena was long hair - for a boxer, and maximum dander. The house. The car. Clothes. Everything. Always full of her hair.

She was full of energy and bounce. Even for a boxer. Never still. Always running. At one point in her early life the vet posited a suggestion of putting her on valium because she was so hyper. But she was fine. Just. Full of energy and life. It would seem that from her still born start, she then never again stopped, always moving.

As a youngster she was a handful. She would bite toes and fingers and anything that moved with razor teeth. And she didn't care. The opposite of Ares who never did that. The first challenge was having her not bite your toes as you walked in the house, she would see that as something to pursue and bite.

The second challenge was not having her bite you, or your fingers. Again a puppy chomp of sharp little teeth. It was so bad that I tried all sorts at the start, from pepper solutions to coat your hands and feet with - she liked the taste - to water bottles to squirt her when she did something - she didn't like that and it would halt her.. somewhat, but then she grew to just fight the water bottle and bite the water. And finally a flick on the nose stopped her. One finger bent back ready to gently flick her on the nose. The rest of the fingers at rest. She'd chomp down, and you'd flick her nose.

She did not like that. And all the biting went away.

Forever afterwards she was the most gentle of dog in accepting anything out of your fingers or hand. Very careful. Very gentle.

She hated collars. Hated leads. Would writhe around. Refusing to be even slightly tamed. 

Again so different to Ares who was zen about the whole experience.

But Athena took it as a personal affront. It took her time to get used to her collar, at times she would stop and wrestle with it. And being on a lead was a nightmare. A constant bouncing at full pelt in any direction she could manage. Crazy.

She was borderline uncontrollable as a pup. Refused to listen. Would break away from her lead and run down the road, across our quiet road. A door open was an invite to her. She once tried to dodge past a person in their own front door, getting past their legs to see what was in the house beyond them. 

At one bad point she ran off, ran into the road, fortunately quiet, but it wasn't good. Her constant defiance of any kind of control. I lost my temper with her. Scooped her up. Shouted that she would kill herself. That was the one and only time I scared her. And when I put her down she ran off and hid in the garden until I coaxed her out and said sorry. That seemed to calm the worst edges of her uncontrollableness down at that point. She would still take the piss. But there was a line she knew not to cross. But I would never lose my temper with her like that again. My mistake, I would not repeat it.

Pretty quickly she learned better about her behaviour. Or rather. She learned what lines were a hard no, and which ones she could bend. Smart. Pushy. She would always pull on her lead. Always eager. Until she was very old, when it all but stopped. But she would still pull slightly even almost right to the end.

When she was younger she was fast and agile. As fast as the whippets she would meet. She and Ares would chase and in turn be chased by them, speeding around. And Athena was crazy acrobatic. On one particular walk she ran up a wall, like some parkour stunt running up a vertical surface, got near the top and somersaulted back down, no big deal, on we go. Bonkers.

She loved water right from the start. Her first experiences were in the water meadow near me which floods regularly during the colder parts of the year. She would love running through all the ankle deep puddles and took delight in the splashes, at times stopping to put both her feet together to stomp to make the biggest splash. She was smart. And had worked it out.

When she was happy she would run with crazy legs. Kicking them out akimbo, flailing them around. Very much like someone running around waving their arms around. She did the same with her legs. She would dart back and forth, quick changes of direction, run in circles. So happy. And when she was trotting and happy she would pick her feet up, high stepping, like some display horse. Her moods were evident. And she was so often very happy at being out and about, running around. And put her in water. And all of those things would come out at once. Never happier than splashing around.

Her experiences with a water meadow lead her to believe that the first river we found, would also be a similar depth. A mistake. She flew into the river with a huge jump. And sank to the bottom some 3 feet below. For a split second I looked down at her - sitting on the bottom of the river. And she looked up at me. I am going to have to jump in. Before she bolted out of the river, up the bank, back onto dry land, and took off like the devil had her tail. It spooked her somewhat, not in any major problem way, but she was definitely even more hyper after that on our walk. And after that walk she treated all deeper water with a little more respect. She quickly learned to judge depth, and if in doubt, paw at it testing how deep it went.

In her later life her wariness with deeper water faded, she would just jump in and once again assume "it was going to be ok" - or perhaps she just had a far better knack of judging depth at that point, because some water she would see was too deep and stop. She was however particularly blasé when getting down steep banks she could not get out of again. She knew that I would come and rescue her. And I did. Sometimes hauling her out by her shoulders. She was always calm. Not panicked. She trusted me to get her out of spots she could not get out of herself. Water was always the lure. Mostly it was stuck in rivers with banks too high to get out of. Sometimes it was monstrous drainage ditches you get in the country side, 8 feet deep and full of muck. And once it was an abandoned quarry she ended up at the bottom of - for the water. And I had to struggle to get her out of it.

This was all very true in her later years when her legs no longer had the raw strength to climb up steep banks. She would just sit in the river and wait. At times she would try to get out, wait, see I had come to rescue her, and then, as if given a pass that oh, it's ok, I can now get rescued at any point, turn around and explore the river until she was bored and came back. Never panicked. Always trusting I would be there.

She loved playing with Ares. The two of them were a close team. For a while when he was younger, she was bigger and faster and she would tease him endlessly with a ball or a stick, or anything else. If he got something for himself, she would steal it. Awful. Even dropping her own thing to steal his. Ares was very zen about it all. Chalk to her cheese.

As Ares grew up in the course of some months, he got bigger, and for a while, faster. And the tables turned. And he had learned how to tease like Athena did. But Athena was less interested in that game. And would take herself off once Ares had something.

Some more months later at the tables equalised. Ares got so big and so muscular he slowed down. Stronger. But not faster.

They loved teasing me with things. The slow human. And they would learn to jog just fast enough to stay out of reach. I never teased them, it was a thing I did. Never teased them, never fooled them. Taught them they could trust me always. But they were ok to tease me. They loved it.

But most of all they would forever chase each other.

One of their favourite games was chasing each other around a giant wisteria bush. Undergrowth and bushes some 20 feet across in a place we regularly walked. They would run around and around the bush, first one way then the other. Then try and catch each other on opposite sides of the bush. Athena, smart as she was, learned she could reverse direction and catch Ares. Until Ares too figured this out. And they would stop and start. And reverse. And tear around and around. And when they caught each other they would descend into one of their play squabbles.

The two of them would forever play fight. Athena was always very vocal. Growling and snapping. Ares was quiet. They would barge each other and play bite, never biting, just jawing each other. They loved it. One of their favourite things. Fighting with each other. But not really. Just wrestling.

On one occasion, poor Ares, sprinting flat out beside Athena, both of them shoulder barging each other, Athena flicked a barge at him that sent him veering off straight into a big tree. He hit it with a meaty thwack that took all the air out of him and floored him. Some passerbys were horrified - is he ok ? I checked him over, nothing broken. He coughed. Got up. All good. He's fine.

Athena when she was younger once managed to take me out too. The pair of them running up and down the length of the woods, dodging in and out and past me. Except one of those dodges wasn't good enough. And Athena hit the back of my legs at full pace. Nearly 30kg of dog going some stupid speed hitting the back of your legs. I folded and went down. Athena hardly broke pace and zipped on. Ares, lovely boy that he was, came over to see if I was ok. Hey. You're on the floor ? Have a kiss. Are you ok ? Athena danced 20 yards away. Unconcerned. Butthole.

In one of our favourite walking spots, a local woods, they both learned where the water caches were to be found in the forest. And they would stop to check out the crooks in a tree. The rotten holes. And then slurp up the water. Disgusting. But they liked it. Refreshing.

Both of them were always delighted with the snow. Their energy ramped up. They loved chasing about in the stuff. Snowy winters were a source of great delight. And I learned. Short hair dogs. Short nosed dogs. Be careful of the temperature. The cold was never an issue. The cold just meant they could burn all their energy without overheating. The heat on the other hand, was not so good. The ice. Just meant fewer breaks.

When she was at her peak she would get to the woods and run the full length of it. Back and forth, bouncing between my slowly changing position and the edges of the woods. A non stop dynamo. Burning off all that crazy energy she had. Every day, no matter the weather, or what was going on, we would take a long walk. At least an hour and a half each day. And the pair of them became super fit. Sculpted muscles like a body builder. Not artificially. Just from all the running and excercise. Very very fit. So fit, it was remarked on in passing by people we would meet.

On the sofa. Nearing 12. After Ares passed. Still in great condition

 

Athena and Ares fought just twice in their life. Triggered by strangers in the house. Food. Unusual situations. But other than that. They never quarreled. They trusted each other. Ares would always look to Athena for the lead, and Athena would scarcely look back to see if anyone followed. But if trouble occurred the roles would flip, Athena would tone down, and Ares would take the lead. They had an agreement. One that seems to contradict a lot of the thinking about Alpha this, or dominant that. For sure Ares was dominant with every other dog he met. Sometimes passive. Sometimes aggressive. But always an assured, I'm bigger and better than you. And with other dogs that walked with us he would make sure they towed the line. No walking in front of him. No acting up. Be polite. Do as you're told. Except none of this applied to Athena. Perhaps it was because they were together from the youngest ages. And Ares grew up with Athena always ahead of him. Whatever it was. Athena was the independent leader. And Ares was the serious muscle in the back. But ironically. Ares was the biggest love bug of all. Loved nothing more than a cuddle. And being with you always.

Athena loved balls. Obsessed with balls. In her earlier life she loved footballs. But would kill them within 10 minutes. She had dozens of balls in the end. Each one was a delight. She would growl and whine at them. And learned to throw them around herself for fun. Smart. Her most favourite ball of all was a hard shelled blue ball the size of a large football. I bought it because she destroyed soft balls. This one. She would not be able to destroy.

She would chase it around the house - and as indescructible as it was, it ended up destroying the house instead. My skirting boards all lost their paint, dinged and banged up from endless collisions. A line around the walls and bathroom of the house indicated the height of the ball and its impact. Scuffed paint. Dents. She would chase it around and around, barking and growling and biting it. She loved it.

In fact it would take her anxious energy out. Anytime someone visited, she would immediately seek her blue ball and run around after it. All that hyped up energy redirected to her blue ball. She loved it. It still remains in my house after she is now no longer here. Dented, scratched to unidentifiableness. Covered in the marks of her teeth and countless chases.

Athena loved to chase anything. Balls were the best - she could move them and throw them herself, how amazing. But anything that moved was great fun. And those things she could work out to move herself even better.

Pond inspection crew. 2020 Athena on point, Ares observing ( as ever )

 

Walking one night in the woods we found an abandoned tyre. I picked it up and stood it up. Ohhh. Thought Athena. She came over to inspect it closely and realised it moved and was bitable. This. Looks good.

I rolled it for her and she loved it ! Many barks ! Nudging it and biting it as it rolled. It flopped over. Game over. I picked it up and rolled it again on a slight incline.

This time Athena had the art of it. If she nudged it. Right side. Then left. She could keep it upright.

Big mistake. She took off into the night out of sight, barking and nudging the tyre at a running pace, keeping it upright and delighting in this new moving toy.

Oh my god.

From the other end of the woods a loud bong resounded into the night. The tyre had crashed into the metal gate, finally stopped. I caught up to find Athena and Ares triumphant with the tyre.

At home. Athena loved going on the flat extension roof of my house. One of her favourite spots. Sometimes she would sleep out there of a hot summer night. She loved sitting up there observing the neighbour. Ares did too, but not quite as much as Athena. They would often both sit up there watching over all the gardens. The best dog spying spot. Many of my nighbours came to know them on sight just because of their roof sitting. They were known as the roof dogs.

They would patrol the roof. Looking for birds, squirrels, cats and people. Watching the trees. Watching everything. Cats particularly were a cause for serious alarm. Tails up. Closely followed. Some barking. Sometimes Athena would charge the roof - and skid to a halt before going over. I trusted she knew what she was doing. And she did. But sometimes she would take the piss. She was smart. So. I can stand with my toes right on the edge, right ? Jeez. But she never slipped.

In her later years getting out onto the roof became increasingly difficult. Sometimes impossible. But she still liked going out there.

Two days before her last day she jumped out there. Had a sniff around. Observed the neighbours. Watched the neighbourhood in general.

Through most of her life Athena was not a food dog. Never was. Mostly uninterested in what you were eating. And not terribly eager for dinner. Chasing things and exploring were her thing. But in later life it changed. She became a real food dog. Always wanted what you were eating. Was insistent she wanted something. She had long by then learned how to ask for stuff - she was never taught, she just figured it out. She could ask with a paw. Hey. Heyyyy. Would tap you gently with a front paw. At other times she would do the look, like many dogs do. Look at the thing. Look at you. Back and forth. Hey. Stupid. I want the thing. Yes. I get it.

Hosepipes.

Ares dearly loved a hosepipe. Get it out. Bite the water. Run after the water. Stand and fight ! He used to be soaked but didn't care. Athena. Hated the hosepipe. Would love the chase and barking. But wanted no part of biting the water or getting wet. Until later in life. Ares still with us. She learned it could be fun. And then would join in. Both of them biting water, spraying each other, much fun. Sometimes she was slow to adapt to a new thing, not because she wasn't smart, just because she was shy of trying sometimes. Ironic given how confident and headstrong she could be.

In her time she chased many rabbits. Squirrels. A deer or two. Rabbits were amazing until she got a little older and realised she was never catching them. And then became zen about the whole thing, watching them, but never chasing. She realised it was out of reach for her.

Towards the end, last year or two of her life, her pace slowed increasingly. She would still at times have a bit of a run. But no more sprinting. No more endless running. And she loved our walks by the rivers around Norfolk. Her favourite thing right up to the end. Of going to find a river and dipping in it. During a single walk she would visit the same bit of river more than once. Never seemed to get bored of it. She loved it.

April 2023 13 years old, enjoying the day

And in that end she could no longer really play with the balls she loved so much. Her teeth or something perhaps hurt too much to pick the up properly. So she would nudge them instead. Sometimes pick them up. But nothing like what she used to do.

I nearly lost Athena a few times during her life. A few close calls. One was her allergic reaction that nearly stopped her dead in her tracks. Slumped in the garden. Little response. Panting. Bad. We learned from that what her allergies were. And had no more trouble with it. The second time was the infection she had somewhere in her ear or brain. That cause the left side of her face to paralyse - and then stay mostly paralysed for the rest of her life. Touch and go whether it killed her. And lastly the seed stuck in a salivary gland. Swollen up to monstrous proportions. Specialist surgery at great cost ended up fishing it out. She lost a gland. But kept her life.

She hated her nails being clipped and having to take a bath. But loved to jump into a river. Go figure.

When she was younger she was so headstrong and sure of herself she would charge through barbed wire, brambles and all sorts in the pursuit of rabbits. Come back out bleeding, thorns in her body. She didn't care. As tough as old boots.

She managed to break both her bottom teeth in one of her favourite past times - log stripping. She loved big logs. Trees ! And pulling them around with the help of Ares and stripping the bark. Loved it. Obsessively. But not great for her teeth.

She bit a chunk out of her tongue - didn't slow her down - in an over zealous pursuit of sticks. Forever after she had a noticeable gouge out of her tongue.

In our final years. When I was ill. She was old. She would come into my bedroom and poke her head around the bottom of my bed. Always the same. Always that floating boxer head. Hello. Are you in bed ? Ok. And the inevitably she would then walk and settle down in the bed beside mine. In earlier years everyone would jump in bed with me. Leaving me - and anyone else in it with me - with bugger all room because of two fat lumps of boxers, who were always very happy to be snugged with you. A combined 65kg of sprawled dog sometimes pinning you beneath a duvet.

She loved watching horses on TV. Dogs too. But horses especially. And sometimes would get up from sitting to walk right up to the TV to watch. I caught her sometimes watching TV with me - something Ares would almost never do. She would sit and watch - would get bored at just humans talking. But other stuff. Sometimes she would watch. When she was younger she would do that whilst sitting upright on the sofa like a person. 

She liked stealing my socks from my hands if I were putting them on to go out. A fun game. Steal the sock. But mostly that was Ares. He loved stealing socks. Especially directly from your feet. He would oh so carefully try to avoid your toes whilst at the same time getting a good grip on your sock. And then pulling. A fun game of tug. Which inevitably he would win. And then trot off triumphant with sock. He would return with same sock and tease you, before running off with it again. One of his favourite things. I think because he knew he would always win the tug of war. And then he enjoyed the teasing that he would also usually win. 

Athena as a pup hated being shut away from people. Toilet training stuck in the kitchen. She hated it. Would scream the house down. Awful. She stayed in there for the shortest possible time whilst being house trained. And then was let out to only return briefly to help Ares do the same thing. Ares used to like cuddling up to her. Athena would be disgusted. Move. Only to have Ares follow her and cuddle up again. This was Ares and Athena. Ares would always go seek Athena. Athena would always do her own thing. And yet.

They were a team. When they were rarely threatened they would fall into pace with each other. A pack. A singular supportive team. And when one barked for aid, the other came. Ares came to learn that a lot of Athenas barks were just overexcitement. But he knew the difference. And would often go to back her up if she needed it.

Watching in the woods 2019

 

I brought them both up to be love bugs of acceptance. They were cuddly and fun and happy and I gave them the best life I could, full of fun things to do and interesting places to explore. The latter particularly. Enrichment via places full of nature, of woods and fields and rivers. I think perhaps in the end it showed. They charmed much of the people they met, turned people into dog people, and if you spent any kind of time with them, made you fall in love with them.

I miss them terribly, more than I can put into words. I am grateful I had them in my life. I am endlessly sad that they are now gone. They were wonderful.

( Ares March 2010 - 13 August 2021 11 years 5 months )

Last photo I have of Athena. A month before passing. Snoozing. Comfy.