Kria

 Kria (Thórdunu Kría) was an amazing gift to me from my friend Silla (Sigurlaug Hauksdóttir) more that 15 years ago. She packed a powerhouse personality or temperament into her petite-ness. Never underestimate an alpha dog! No dog ever messed with her. She never exercised her power; they all just knew who she was. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

She traveled to the US before Icelandic Sheepdogs were a breed recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC) and, as a foundation bitch, she helped make our breed in North America. I may be remembering wrong - at my age that's, I hope, forgivable. She followed Kersins Huld and Kersins Kata from Helga Gústavsdóttir to Michigan at a time when there were no Icelandic Sheepdogs in the entire state of Michigan and very few in the entire US.

She added her 'special-ness' to our gene pool here; she is survived by several of her descendants who are scattered across North America.

She was able to earn several performance titles in the AKC when our breed was able to get partial acceptance into those events. Unfortunately she never entered the 'breed ring' for conformation events because full acceptance came late for her.

She was not a lap dog, a sit on the chair dog, a fussy pampered dog. She resisted efforts at cuddling as being beneath her dignity. She insisted that she was a 'real' dog. However, I do have two posed glamour shots. Some of her descendants would very much like to be lap dog but we have rules about that. I suspect she would not have been happy that I'm sharing these last two photos.