We took Jorka's mum, Madi, to Belgium to mate her to "Bjork".  Madi gave birth to three puppies, one died at two days old.  This left two girls, Jorka and her sister.  Madi was very ill for the first two weeks after giving birth, we took her to the vets and he could find nothing wrong with her, she just wouldn't eat.  I remember feeding her cornflakes and milk from my hands.  The other girl died at ten days and we also struggled to keep Jorka alive.  However, we managed it and at eight weeks Jorka was a beautiful puppy.  We decided that as we had put so much time and effort into keeping her alive that we would keep her.  Jorka's one major fault was that she was cow hocked and therefore we did not show her.  Her hips were very good 3-3 and her elbows were clear, so we decided that we would mate her to our male Geilo.  She carried the puppies full term, the first one was born dead and she needed a Ceasar for the remaining four puppies.  The vets only managed to save one which then died at three days old. 

At her next season we mated her to Geilo again, this time she was pregnant and there were three puppies showing on the scan, at nine weeks she produced one very large dead puppy one day early, the other two that were seen on the scan had been reabsorbed.

Not long after this we noticed a small lump on the top of her back left foot, between her two outside toes, our vet was going to remove it but decided to refer Jorka to the Royal Dick Veterinary University Hospital in Edinburgh. There they diagnosed a small mast cell tumor, this would have to be removed, unfortunatley as a percentage of healthy tissue had to be removed to ensure there was no possability of cancer cells spreading full amputation of the leg was required. This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make in all our years with dogs, we did not know how Jorka would manage on three legs, especially as she was not an only dog. We decided to go ahead with the amputation and monitor Jorka over the next few weeks and months to ensure she was recovering from her ordeal well.

Within a few days from her returning home Jorka was managing very well on three legs, she was learning fast how to manage and adjust her life to her new circumstances, we and the vets in Edinburgh were very pleased with her progress over the next few weeks.

Then suddenly after three weeks she became very lethergic and was being a little sick, we rushed her to our own vet, after a short time we received a telephone call saying they were very concerned about her and she was dangerously ill. Their opinion was she needed surgery, but she might not survive the anesthetic or operation, we had to give Jorka the best chance and the vet did operate, he said if we did not hear from them in two hours all would be going well. As the time passed we were hopeful, then at one hour fifty minutes we received a call to say she had a burst stomach ulcer and severe peritonitis, the prognosis was not good, we then decided that our lovely girl Jorka had been through enough over the last few weeks and we would let her slip away peacefully while still asleep. Like the decision to go ahead with the amputation this was another decision we had not been prepared for.