Dear Yuki, thank you for the time and love you gave our family for nine beautiful years. Your loving gaze, calm presence and steadfast presence were a balm to our souls. We will miss you terribly. Yuki came to us in March 2015, very skinny with recurrent ear and teeth infections. We got that mostly under control over the years with diet and persistence and the support of Chantilly Animal Hospital. She was best friends with Teddy, our Safe Harbor german shepherd rescue from Kansas. Teddy and Yuki loved to go on walks together as well as playing ‘doggie WWF’ with a couple of the neighborhood dogs. Yuki’s nickname was ‘Flash’ as she could sprint at amazing speeds once she got her back legs underneath her. It was poetry in motion. Yuki was also the sniffiest dog I’ve ever seen. No smell was too insignificant to be ignored, and many smells required extensive minutes long bouts before she was fully satisfied she had extracted all information from the 2 inch spot on the ground. In the morning she had to smell our breath and when we came home from work or shopping she had to sniff our faces, hairlines and clothes. We always asked “Dr. Yuki” if we had the all clear. She loved the park, chasing small furry animals (we had to be on alert for that), and being in proximity to either Teddy, me or my daughter. Yuki knew what time it was and if we were teleworking she circled us to herd us to our desks and computers. If we walked out for coffee or food she monitored our return, the epitome of the work supervisor. We all knew who was in charge. She liked to do “upside down dog” with her head hanging off the dog bed, laying under my work desk, and generally being in the family mix. Yuki was so shy when we first got her she hid in the pantry. She slowly warmed up to us although she was always very shy around men and children. She seemed conflicted; she wanted to be petted but didn’t quite trust anyone to do it right. She did not like her raincoat (seemed resigned) or snow boots (those never stayed on) but absolutely adored rolling around in snow like a big white fluffy puppy.