Attica was a gorgeous silver/fawn long coat female with incredible bone, amazing temperament, and show spirit.
She also broke my heart.
Attica passed away at 10 months old, and the situation spiraled so much it is what led me to quit breeding back in 2018.
Attica was a happy, sweet, girl that we brought home at 4 months old. She was my dream dog, the one I finally allowed myself to get no longer caring what other breeders thought as they were going to be displeased with me no matter what I did (thus is the drama of the show dog world). I LOVE long coat akitas. I always have. I had wanted to own a show bred long coat and attempt showing for years as they are faulted but not disqualified.
I grew up with long haired cats, and I always loved the feel and grooming of the long coated akitas as result. I even named Attica after my personal cat I had grown up with that has passed a couple years prior, "Atticus".
Just a month after she came to me, we took her to her first UKC show, where she took Best Puppy In Show all four shows that weekend. She was amazing. She moved beautifully, she stood stacked for the judges with zero fuss, and the judges loved her. They acknowledge directly in the ring that they were aware of the fault, but her quality otherwise was worthy. I was so, so looking forward to the future with her.
But it wasn't meant to be.
The problem with genetics is that things are not foolproof. Not everything potentially wrong shows up at birth. Some times organs only fail once the dog has reached a size in which the organ can no longer sustain normal function. This was the case with Attica. Let it be known that I in NO WAY blame the breeder, as there is no way they could have known this would happen to her, nor any way they could have prevented this from happening, sometimes it is the luck of the draw in genetic combination.
Her liver failed.
It would have been heartbreaking if it had been that alone, but unfortunately our county had a lot of flooding that year, and as result a huge parvo epidemic that was all over the news. She went from seemingly fine one moment, to refusing dinner one night, having a seizure later that night, then going to the vet in the morning. She became disorientated in the car as we arrived, but was fine to walk into the vet's office unassisted, hopped up on the scale on her own, but as we took a seat to wait for a room, she slumped to the floor, puked, and never sat back up. She had spiked a fever that had reached 106 by the time we had made it to the vet.
They determined that her liver had given out. Her white cells had crashed. Immune system was gone. She never showed signs of liver failure. The vet was even puzzled, because the liver failure wouldn't have produced the symptoms we had no have hit so quick and hard. We were at the vet 2 hours and had run several tests before it was discovered that she actually had parvo, never having had any symptoms, all while being a fully vaccinated 10 month old. But the liver failing had tanked her immune system, which left her open to the parvo, and when the parvo hit her body had crashed so fast there was no time to react, or ultimately any hope.
Despite knowing was the final outcome would be due to knowing how to read bloodwork, I still sat in the patient room for 8 hours just hoping she would miraculously come out of it enough to save, crying hysterically the entire time, to the point my neighbor drove over there to sit with me. After 8 hours I had to admit to myself that nothing was going to save her with dual lethal conditions, I finally let her go.
I then had to rush vaccinate my litter of four 7 week old puppies- who had been scheduled to see the vet for their vaccines the following day. As you can expect, they had already been exposed. We made it a week without symptoms, then gradually all 4 puppies came down with parvo. Due to the experience and help of a fantastic woman, 3 of the 4 puppies went on to beat parvo and enjoy life. I unfortunately lost the 4th.
I was heartbroken. Traumatized. I'd done everything right- had fully vaccinated my dogs, always vaccinated my puppies. Never took my pups anywhere but my fenced private yard. I lost my precious Attica, my poor innocent puppies became sick. I didn't sleep- for weeks. I was was pushing fluids and antibiotics, constantly taking temperatures, was neurotically cleaning both inside and outside of the house. I sprayed the yard with bleach water so thoroughly with a weed sprayer that the entire block smelled like a public pool for ages. My hands had chemical burns, my family, friends, and would later be significant other were are severely worried about me...
In the end I decided that I would never ever trust that house again. I put in notice with my housemates that I would be leaving, and why. I called in favors, got my dogs to a safe non-diseased location, and then left myself. It was an incredibly hard time of my life. I grieved for months.
I still have nightmares, but I'm in a good place both physically and mentally now. I live with an amazing man, I have my dogs again, and my experiences pushed me towards the veterinary field where I have since began working as a vet assistant/tech and am in school for Veterinary Technician certification. I never want anyone else to experience what I did, and now I can help educate the public about the dangers of parvo.
Rest in peace sweet girl, I will never, ever forget.
