Max Derby Shelby

Akita Cautionaries: Derby's Tale by Rich + Tina Cheng Preface Be extremely careful when you let your dog off leash, especially at night. Always keep your dog in sight at all times. Dogs have mind of their own, no matter how obedient they appear to be. We lost our Derby because we we loved her so much and wanted her to run free whenever we thought it was safe. I could have saved her life if I had been less careless and expected less of my smart Derby. It's better to be safe than sorry. Please hug your dogs and take good care of them for us, for we have nothing left except our broken hearts. You are their alphas and they depend on you to keep them safe. Below is a letter written by my wife who is five months pregnant with our first son. -Rich Cheng To our dearest friend, Derby who was with us from Mar.18 - Mar 27,1997. Mar 27, that moonless, chilly night. Hong had a very tough day at work. We were not going to change our routine that day. After dinner, I spoke in Chinese to Hong, to ask if Derby wanted to go out. I enjoyed to let him ask the question, so I can sit back and indulge myself in watching how Derby will tell us YES this time. My husband popped the question softly, +Do you want to go for walk Derby?+ +Oh yes, Oh yes!+ Derby immediately went into a state of ecstatic. She jumped and stood up to Hong's chest a couple of times, her beautiful tail wiggling left and right. Then she lowered herself to ground, pretending as if she was going to attack, then she raised her head towards the ceiling, released a sound of a playful howling. While we were getting ready, she just ran in circles around me, around Hong, like a happy puppy again. We got to the Marlborough high track, which is a fenced one, with two gates at one side. Derby, you were so excited and you started to sniff at everything that was curious to you. At the track, Hong bent down, spoke to you firmly and softly: +Derby, I'll let you go, you come back when I call, OK?+ Then he released your leash. +Free, Derby, run+. We saw you just leap into the air, like a deer, then you merged into the darkness... +++ It has been ten days since we got you, and tonight was merely a routine neither of us has ever broken. Ten days ago, I saw an ad about somebody wanted to give a two-year old Akita away. Hong and I drove an hour that night, to meet you for the first time. I remembered very well when I saw you the first time. You were such a beautiful girl. You have a black face, it makes you resemble a bear. +You are a big girl!+, that's what I said to you. You weighed 70 pounds, not much less than me. You liked to stand up to people's chest; you stood as tall as my nose. You have white, brownish fur, longer fur over your back. You have a large, full, white tail, curled beautifully over your back. You just laid down there, kept a little distance from us, very curiously looking at us. Hong said he immediately fall in love with you. That night, we brought you home. I don't know how you felt, Derby, the first night must be very difficult on you. From the very next morning, you were our dog! We began our routine from that day. Hong would get up at six every morning, feed you breakfast and take you for walk. You always greet him, as warm as you can, as sincerely as you can. Sometimes, you would tap your forelegs in excitement, sometimes you would run back and forth with the happiness glowing in your eyes, and you always, always jumped and stood up, looked at him in the eyes and licked him. It's such a joyful scene to watch, the one I will forever remember. Hong usually took you to a place with nobody there, so he can let you run free for a few minutes. He said you would run in a circle around him. You always looked back, checked and made sure he was there with you. You would come when he called you, though sometimes slowly and a bit reluctantly. It was a joy for him to watch you run free, to feel the joy you feel, to see you got your exercise and freedom you wanted. Every time after you came home, the first thing for you was coming upstairs to check on me. You always want to make sure both of us are fine, are around. Then you will wait patiently for me to get up. When I got up, you always greet me right outside my bedroom door. You will lick me, make sure I will smell like you for a whole day, you will wiggle you tail so vigorously, telling me how happy you are to see me, and you will stand up and shake hands with me. Then you will follow me around until I had to go to work. I would say +Derby, Mummy has to go to work, you stay, being a good girl. + You would stay. Looking at me, I could feel what you want to say to me, + I will wait for you here. Mummy.+ You were such a nice girl. You appeared as if you stayed. But when I drove away, I can see your white nose sticking against the window. You always see us off, for as far as you could. I always think about you at work Derby. I don't know how long I would do this. I did come home to see you every day. You were there every time I opened the door and you were so happy to see me. I would hug you, pet you, and tell you I miss you too. While I had my lunch, you would sit quietly next to me. You never bother us, yet you always next to us and want to make sure we are around. I would comb your coat after lunch, you had beautiful long fur. You enjoyed me scratching your tummy for you. You liked to lie on your back, spread your legs, like a foolish baby. I scratch your tummy, you lift your head, look at me. Every five o'clock, we rushed home for you, because we had missed you for a whole day. We would have dinner, while you sit patiently next to us. You like to lie down, with your legs spread and flat on the floor. I thought you look like a frog that way. I enjoyed watching you, petting you, and having you around in the kitchen. I sometimes fix you dinner, sometimes feed you from the can. Then after dinner we went for a walk again. You always show us how excited you are when we asked you +Would you like to walk?+. Every night we found some place we could let you run off leash a bit. To see you running and leaping under the free sky was the happiest moment we shared. After the walk, we were all exhausted. We would stay in the living room, kill the rest of the night. With you, there wasn't a dull moment. You would lie down under the table next to us. You seemed so relaxed, slept so well. Sometimes you even snored. But a little sound would wake you up, you would make sure nothing is wrong before you go back to sleep. When we said good night to you, you always stayed, slept downstairs, although you want so much to be with us. You were a dignified dog, never pushing or whining for what you want, that's always the way you are. +++ After almost one round of walk, we couldn't really see you. We started to call you. But you didn't come. We then went three or four rounds around the track calling for you, but you never came. We'll never understand why that night you didn't come back. We went for a walk every morning and evening, you always kept us in check. You always looked back to see if we were there, you always came when we call you. We don't understand what happened that night. We were both so tired, but we just kept looking. I was thinking about the worst case, I thought I might not see you for a few days. But as long as you don't go too far, we'll find you. One hour later, while we were driving down Rt 85, only 2 hundred yards from the high school, we saw two police cars with their flashing lights on. There I saw you, lying down on the road. I saw your tail, trembling in the cold wind, I knew immediately that's you, that's you. Oh, Derby, what has happened? I remembered the police said you were hit by a car just a minute ago, and they shake their heads. My heart went to pieces as if the world has ended. I don't dare to go out of car, to look closely at you. I went frantic, I'm so sorry Derby, Mummy didn't watch over you, and Mummy failed you! For a moment I thought I want to go with you. I kept telling you how sorry I was, how sad I was to see you lying down there with no life left in you. It has been only an hour, since last time we saw you alive. We already swear we would never let you off leash again at night, we swear to ourselves that we will never let you off our sight again, just let us find you, we'll do anything to correct ourselves. But you didn't give us a second chance. You just came and go, leave us in suffering, grief and endless regret. Somehow, we had never remotely thought cars would be a danger to you. We didn't know you would run away from the field. We didn't know that night you would fail to hear us. If we ever know this could happen, we would do anything in this whole world to avoid it. I heard the officers said what a beautiful dog. You were so beautiful, you lie down there as if you just fell to sleep. But you would not wake up. We'll never see you wake up to us anymore. We'll spend the rest of our life without you, while knowing we are fully responsible for this to happen. We just wanted you to be happy, Derby, my dear Derby. We thought that's one of the things you enjoyed so much, and we didn't want to deprive you from running free, but that had you killed! Now, we only have memory of you left with us. We left some flowers at where you died. I thought you were going to be with us for a very long time. I thought we were a big family now. I thought I could have a lot of love and attention to give to you. I thought you'll see and play with our unborn son. I want to do many things for you. We had all our weekends planned. We were going to bring you hiking, to the beach, to the lakes. Now we cannot, we just can not do anything that you could feel anymore. Oh Derby, That kills us! You were a such unique dog with personalities we have never seen before. You always keep your cool, we never heard you bark, even when other dogs bark at you. You were dignified, never begging for things. You were courageous, never backed off from things. You were our sweet girl. You were always responsive, also showing all about how you feel. You always open your heart to us, make us happy and tell us how happy you are being with us. You also have endless curiosity, curious about just anything. You were so caring, you always in charge, make sure both of us were fine, make sure everything is under control, make sure we are safe. Derby, although we only had a short time together, you had became my best friend. Seeing you around and seeing you happy were the most important things. We saw you stole the teddy bear from our bedroom. Then we decided to give the bear to you. Do you remember how happy you were? You nipped the bear's ear, the bear's tail, you lick him all over, and you gently carry him around. Watching you playing with the bear, I knew you would be a good mother if you ever became one. You were a quite girl, seldom make any sound or noise. But when Daddy was playing with you outside, you growl playfully like a wolf! You like to play. Sometimes you pretended you want to attack us, but end up gently tapping us on the chest. Sometimes you stood up and tapped my shoulder from the back. I thought only bears do that! You have so many sweet postures. Sometimes you would sit there, with your head tilted, looked at us very curiously. Sometimes, you sit next to us, look at us through your sweet eyes. When you hear any sound, you then look very vigilant, until you know everything is fine. Now you are gone, left us to pass the day without you. Each time I come to the door, I would expect to see your sweet face, but you weren't there. I woke up in the middle of the night, I would think for a moment that all this was just a nightmare, but it wasn't. Now I need to think about how strong you were, how smart you were, how good you kept your cool, I need to think about all these. I need to learn from you to help me through. Derby, I want to tell you that I loved you dearly and I'll always do. I will always remember you as my best friend. There won't be anybody going to replace you in my heart, and you went with a piece of me with you. I want to say I am sorry that I failed to watch over you and for that I will forever regret. But Derby, I need to think of you, think about when you were alive, how much you want me to be happy to help me through this. Derby, I miss you very much, I want you very much, I want to hold you, to hug you, to kiss you, to talk to you or hear you talk, to just be with you. I also have to be strong like you, to live on with my life without you. Derby, I love you and I'll miss you, Your failed Mummy Mar. 29, 1997 Afterthoughts Derby's tale is not to be inflicting more pain to our heart, but to remind us once more how fragile life can be and how careful we must guard our loved ones. If any unfortunate thing can be avoided because of our story, Derby's life will be paid off in a special way. We later also heard from Marborough dog officer about many other dangers may face our best friends if they run loose, such as fights with other dogs, bit by animals that has rabies, etc. I think if we had not been so overwhelmed by the joy Derby bought to us, if we had SERIOUSLY considered those threats, we would have been much more careful. Also, a lot of Akita experts now send us emails telling us that they can trust their shepherds, their retrievers much better than Akitas for obeying commands, just because Akitas are much more independent, and can decide at one second that this time they know best, no matter how much they love us. They also do not