Athena as her namesake, was indeed stately and has all the characteristics of the Greek Goddess, a beautiful warrior Goddess.
It was about three months after Krystal passed on, Greeja and I felt the lost even greater when we came back to a home not being greeted by the ever happy Krystal wagging its tail, and jumping in joy excitedly seeing us. We thought it was about time we moved on, wanting to fill that void. It was rather coincidental, when one of Greeja's friend mentioned that there was a puppy for adoption in Klang. We contacted the person and she sent us the photo of that puppy. Instantly we took liking to him, and decided to make a trip to Klang to pick him up. Though initially it was just Greeja and I making the trip to Klang, we were accompanied by Roshen, Dhivyaa and Kavin in the end.
So we went, saw the puppy, got excited and was just about to leave with him when the lady (who runs the animal shelter) mentioned in passing that the puppy's sister will be lonely now. This got everyone a little emotional. She added on saying that no one wants her because she has a darker shade compared to the rest. I am not sure whether the statement was meant to make us feel guilty, but everyone felt that they had to see that puppy too. The lady brought her out, and it was Kavin who picked the puppy up and said she is beautiful, shall we adopt her too. Well it was not him alone, but everyone felt the same way, including Greeja and me, and that's how Athena came into our lives. A video was sent to Raviena in New Zealand, and she too thought it was a good idea to have them both together.
From day one, they were a boisterous pair, shoes were not spared, and the front door saw the brunt of their teething.
It was Athena and Arya. Athena depicting the symbol of Wisdom and Arya meaning the Noble One. Whether it was coincidental, as they were growing up, Athena exhibited the signs of being the alpha, and expected Arya to follow orders.
She was not only protective over everyone at home but also showed her affection too. She will be the first to greet us when we come home, wagging her tail and jumping on us. As she was rather a large dog, the tendency to push us off balance was very frequent. They say that human's best friend is a dog, and nothing can be far off from that, when I saw the bonding between Roshen and Athena. They have their affectionate moments both before he leaves to work and after he returns. They appear to almost whispering to each other exchanging some kind of deep emotions. To the point sometime last year an incident shook all of us, when whilst they (Roshen and Athena) were having their moment, Arya butted in, and in an instant reaction, Athena bit Roshen's lips. That was a gory site, and Roshen was immediately rushed to the hospital and eventually had to be tended to by a plastic surgeon to minimise the scar on his lip. I don't know whether Athena felt remorseful but until Roshen came back from the hospital she was awfully quiet and distant. Three days later he came back, Athena saw him, and they had their moment again, and after that everything was fine.
Even when my Mom and Dad or my sister’s family visits us from Johor, they are at their best behavior. They also know our neighbors well. But anyone else, they would go furious with blood curdling barks. The worst is if anyone comes to the gate (postman,courier etc) or even seeing other dogs passing, they would jump on the gate and would kick a big fuss.
We know she was suffering, such an active dog, suddenly being in a state of immobility, is too much a pain for her to endure both physically and mentally.
On Friday the Vet told us the bitter truth, that none of us wanted to accept. She said, we had to let her go, otherwise she will endure this suffering till the end which was certain. It was a very difficult moment especially for Greeja. Like Roshen, Greeja's bond with Athena was special too. Every morning and evening Greeja spends quality time interacting with them. I always tell her "looks like Athena and Arya gets more of your attention than me," that should speak volumes of their bonding.
But we had to make the call, I did not want to push it, and wanted Greeja to take her time to cerebrate and decide the next course of action. That day, for some reason, Greeja brought milk for Athena, both of us fed her. Though she was lying on her side all the time, she seemed happy. But it was obvious too that she was fast deteorating. We left the hospital feeling wretched, informing the Vet that we will update her later that day.
Saturday morning, Athena was brought to the Vet's consulting room, where all of us took turns to feed milk to Athena and said our goodbye's.
Then the difficult moment came, Roshen, Kavin, Dhivyaa, Raviena (on video call), Yuhain (on video call), Greeja and I, witnessed the passing away of ATHENA, whilst Arunachala Shiva hymn was playing in the background.
We took ATHENA's mortal remains and gave her a meaningful burial.
Thus ended the life of ATHENA who choose us to be part of our family. A regal dog till the end, loved as a member of the family and died leaving good memories to cherish.
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