Jojo: little girl with a zest for life

JOJO, or to give her her full name, Golden Mile Jojo, entered my life one night when I was at work. I had expected her delivery all day and she never arrived, however, my son phoned me at 9pm and let me know that she had been delivered.

I asked how she was taking the new people and was told "She is totally laid back and loves Kindy already." Kindy was my little male chihuahua and the reason I bought Jojo - I worked at night and felt that he needed a companion.

Through the next few weeks we became familiar with each other and I observed how she reacted with Kindy. She was obviously stricken with him, and he was similarly devoted to her. But she had feminine wiles - the most hilarious was the way she teased Kindy or motivated him to a reaction that she knew would get him into trouble.

When I was hanging the washing on the line she would wait until I went inside the house, pick pegs out of the peg basket and lay them down in front of Kindy. After two or three attempts she would always inspire him to pick one up and she would chase him around the yard. But when I came out again, guess who had the pegs? Never Jojo!

And sometimes a neighbour would look over the fence to see if I was around, notice the dogs and start talking to them. Kindy would look up and go back to what he was doing, but Jojo would run over to the fence, act excited and perhaps give a small bark before going to get Kindy. Her body language always said "Come on, this is a job for the man!"

And he was again always fooled and would go over to the fence and start barking. So who was the naughty one barking at the neighbours when I went outside? Not Jojo! But of course she had forgotten about windows and I never let her know that I knew her little games.

Jojo and Kindy were companions for life and when Kindy died at age 14 Jojo was so upset that she ate nothing for four days. She died before she reached 11 years old, from heart disease. Kindy had had a heart murmur from a very young age, but it had never progressed to anything more. Jojo's heart problem was not a murmur, but more a weakness that unfortunately progressed fast as she grew older.

Little Jojo always had a huge capacity for life and a naughty spark that meant she will not ever be forgotten. She taught me a huge amount about canine behaviour and made me realise that dogs are not so removed from humans - only more trustworthy. - EP