Here are links to other archived pages:

• Archieved Homepage with the announcement of Sasha's mating
• Archieved Homepage with the announcement of Sasha's litter

Kennel Al-Dahná's Cæsar (N.S.UCH.Afterglow Get Offamy Cloud x Farday Anaconda) had his debut in the ring on July 26th with a good performance under judge Veli-Pekka Kumpumàki from Finland. Cæsar was handled by Belle Skogland. The show was the Mosseutstillingen 2008, that was held at Råde Idrettsanlegg in Norway. Caser got a 1st and was placed 2nd in his class. In the future he will probably be seen more often in the ring.

Al-Dahná's Cæsar in the ring with Belle Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Bent-Ove Knudsen

Sunday June 15th (2008) Liz and Claire Millward, from Alouann, came to Stokke for a very short visit. Liz and Claire had bought non-refundable tickets and before the catastrophe happened at Kennel Al-Dahná. Since it wasn't possible to get a refund, they came over to visit Victoria, the other dogs and us. It was a very nice do, with BBQ'ing, dog-talk, dogs, people and Victoria. We have put out a page with pictures of dogs and people.

Liz and Claire Millward with Victoria Photo: Alf H. Refsum

We went to Västerås in Sweden this weekend with Hippi and Victoria to compete with Hippi, show Victoria and meet Liz and Claire with friends. It became a nice trip with many good experiences for everybody. It didn't go Hippi's way, but was a good experience for him nonetheless. Liz did a really good job as a handler for Hippi and we are very happy with the way she handled him. Victoria got to experience the atmosphere around a big show, and even though she is still too young to participate in the exhibition, she got to show herself off to many followers from around the world. We probably do not really understand how widely known this young lady is, but she does have a lot of followers. It was an unreal experience to be stopped in the streets of Västerås by unknown people that recognised the little wonder, and for not to talk about the number of people that came to see her and say hello

We took a great number of pictures on the trip and have published some of them on a separate page about the trip to Västerås. Some of the pictures are also published on the pages of Hippi and Victoria.

Al-Dahná's Uriah Heep in the ring at Västerås Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Alf H. Refsum

Victoria has turned 8 weeks, and is growing rapidly. In the picture below she sits in the arms of Belle (Skogland). She reminds us more and more of Sasha, but she'll be a lot lighter and with a pitch black mask. We are looking forward to see her develop. Victoria will come along to the big Afghan Hound show in Västerås in Sweden. There she will see Claire and Liz, and a lot of people that have followed her story so far, in addition to other people that are just curious.

Al-Dahná's Vitae Victoria at 8 weeks, and in the arms of Belle Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen, Liz Millward and Alf H. Refsum Photo: Eva Skogland

"I am overwhelmed by the enormous outpouring of support and sympathy shown by people all over the world, and mostly from complete strangers. During this whole episode the support and well wishing that have been directed towards me, Bent-Ove, Kennel Al-Dahna, Sasha and Victoria have helped us tremendously. It has helped us keep our sanity through one loss after another, and made it possible to live through. Sasha was a very unique dog, I would actually say one in a million, and the loss is devastating, but Victoria will surely be there for us in the future. I hope that you will all get a chance to meet her one day under different circumstances. I am very grateful for the support shown to me, and also for the support shown towards Sasha and Victoria. Thank you all very much."

Torill

Sasha fought so hard for so long that in the end there was nothing left. All the way to the end she showed an unbelievable mental strength. Just last Tuesday night she managed to get well from an acute kidney failure, to the vets big surprise, but the pneumonia that followed was too much for her.

There is a lot one can say at such a time, and specially when it is about someone very special, but I believe that for Torill this will be enough: "No more Sasha on the window cill while we are BBQ'ing". It says everything about Sasha, although in a highly personal manner.

Sashas passing is hopefully the last chapter in the tragedy that struck Kennel Al-Dahná.

Victoria, her only living offspring, is in great shape.

Al-Dahná's Rakhsha (Sasha) with her daughter Al-Dahná's Vitae Victoria

Kennel Al-Dahná had a good day at the NKK's International show in Trondhjem (Norway). We showed Requitha and Hippi. Hippi became 3BDand got the cert. He is only missing a "small" cert for his N CH, and that needs to be taken after August 18th. Requitha won Best Bitch, BOS and got a CACIB. Handler for both was Belle.

N CH Al-Dahná's Uriah Heep (Hippi) Ownerse: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Torill Knudsen

N CH Al-Dahná's Requitha Sunshineflower (Requitha) and N CH Tells Grabbing T' Spotlight Owners: Anita Andersen and Hege Danning Photo: Torill Knudsen

We have now published a separate page about Victoria with pictures, videos, pedigree and other stuff. This page will updated as new this happens. You can find the page here.

We have now published an article about what happened at Kennel Al-Dahná. It should be relatively factual and without too much personal point of view - that will come later. This is the first article in a series of three articles that deals with "What happened, "What could we have done better" and "What did we learn". We hope that by doing this others that happen in the same situation will avoid the problems we had and come through with far a better result than we had. You can find the article here: A trip to hell

During the past 2 days we have had a tragedy/catastrophe with the V-litter here at Kennel Al-Dahná. Less than two days ago Sasha's temperature started to rise dramatically. She got very hot and lost her appetite completely. In addition all the pups became ill, and lost temperature. Then we had 3 visits to the vet with an awful lot of injections, one operation and other treatments, in additions to many phone calls.

Sasha had a very strong infection of her fallopian tubes, and the pups were dehydrated and cold. We were on our feet the whole time trying to save them. Yesterday was an absolute disaster. First a pup died in the vets office, then Sasha had a hysterectomy and in the evening we lost 6 pups in less than 30 minutes. We received help from a lot of people that came from far way to help or called with advice. We are eternally grateful for the help and support we received.

When this is being written we have 3 pups left, 1 dog and 2 bitches. They are nearly back to normal and have a healthy appetite. Sasha is also recovering, and she is taking in food and water again.

We will publish an article on the website later on about our experience, and what we learned from it. On Monday the dead pups will be sent for an autopsy at the Veterinarian College of Norway in the hope that we can identify what caused this.

Update I

Sasha is now fighting for her life. She has got a very hard infection of her teats and is going to be operated tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. She was to weak to be operated the evening. The pups are hanging in there, but we are a bit worried about the dog. All three are too light. So we are facing another night of intensive dog care.

Update II

Sasha is now through the operation. She over the most critical phases of the treatment, but not completely over it yet. But it does look infinitely better than it did yesterday. She got 40 stitches, and is less a few teats. Now we also know what killed most of the pups. They had drunk infected milk from the udders and that was deadly for them. Since all bar one of the udders were infected, all bar one of the pups got badly infected.

The pups are doing quite well. It looks like they have gained some weight during the last 12 hours. Two were slightly dehydrated, but all 3 were active. The two dehydrated one got an infusion of liquids and all 3 got anti-biotic.

Update III

The earlier worry we had about the dog was unfortunately correct. He passed away around 10 o'clock Friday evening. Words can't describe the pain and sorrow we feel about the loss of so many beautiful pups. We only hope this is the last one to pass away.

Update IV - Sunday 11 o'clock (Norwegian time)

One of the female pups have started to have problems with taking food. It is similar to what happened to the last dog. The vet has done everything that can be done at the moment, so we are left to hope. The last bitch is still doing great. She was always in a much better shape than the other pups.

Sasha is under the circumstance in a fairly good shape. She manages to take short walks and can take in both water and food on her own.

We would like to send a big message of thanks to all the people who call us, send SMS or other messages and emails. They are a big help for us in our hour of need. Thank you again.

Update V - Sunday 15:30 (Norwegian time)

The bitch died at 15:20. This was not unexpected after it started to bleed from the mouth. The vet says that this indicates a multi-organ failure as result from toxic poisoning caused by a staphylococcus infection.

Update VI - Monday 21:00 (Norwegian time)

The last bitch pup is in good shape. We have now found a name for her. From now on she will be known as Al-Dahná's Victoria. Victoria for Victorious. Means "victory" in Latin. Victoria was the Roman goddess of victory. Victoria snuggles up to a toy lion she got to keep her company after she lost her siblings. She is a very determined young lady and fights like a devil when given medicines. Something she does not like at all. Otherwise she eats well, and her weight is steadily increasing. The vet thinks she should have a good chancee as she has survived until now.

Sasha seems to be in a good shape, and is drinks and eats. She misses her pups terribly and continues to look for them. She cries sorely for them.

Al-Dahná's Quickstep (Brooklyn) sends greetings to her litter-sister Al-Dahná's Quincy Rose (Rosie) and congratulates on her 12th birtday on May 10th. Hope you lots of cake. Nam-nam.

We now know how it ended. 12 puppies, 5 dogs and 7 bitches. All of them cream/golden with masks. All the puppies are very active, with a sound instinct for getting food. At the moment they are working in shifts. Some of them are working (eating), and some are sleeping and visa versa. They are a fairly quite lot, at least as long as there is food available and they get to sleep safe and sound under mums protective wings. The firstborns have now by now become fairly round, while the lastborns have a little catching up to do, without this seeming to be a problem. Still early days. Sasha is en excellent mum, but quite tired at the moment.

The litter will gets its own pages, with videos, pictures and so on. They will be permanently linked from a new menu item called Dogs. Check back here for updates about the pages.

For interested puppy buyers we wish to inform you that 3 pups have already found a new home; 2 dogs, including "Stomperud", and a bitch. In addition 1 dog and 1 bitch are reserved pending a decision from prospective buyers.

The question is where will this end? How many pups are there and how large are they? I believe Sasha is looking forward to become somewhat lighter.

Sasha May 4th 2008 Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Alf H. Refsum

Now it is very easy to see that Sasha will be getting a lot of puppies. She has become very large and heavy. As one say; A picture is worth a 1000 words, and here is a picture:

Sasha April 30th 2008 Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Alf H. Refsum

Our dearly beloved, and everybodys special Vilde - Al-Dahná's Quintana De La Vilde, had to leave us today, April 28th 2008. She would have been 12 years old on May the 10th, and become a grandmother for the 2nd time on May the 6th. She was the mother of 2 Al-Dahná litters, the R and T litters. From these litters are Al-Dahná's Rakhsha (Sasha), S N D NORD CH Al-Dahná's Raimona (Mona), Al-Dahná's Rapakoshi Rashmin (Sjasmin), Al-Dahná's Raskoh Ramsey (Raskoh), N CH Al-Dahná's Reqitha the Sunshine Flower (Reqitha), Al-Dahná's Ronja Røverdatter (Ronja), Al-Dahná's Royal Star (Tiger), N CH Al-Dahná's Tarantino (Tino), Al-Dahná's Tirone (Tommy), Al-Dahná's Tabatha (Tabatha), Al-Dahná's Tatiana (Tatiana) and Al-Dahná's Tamilla (Saffi). Not a bad gift to the world.

Vilde - Al-Dahná's Quintana De La Vilde Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen

This weekend at WELKS (West Of England Ladies’ Kennel Society) the Alouann Show team won the Breeders Stakes for the day on Friday and then took the Overall Breeders Stakes on Sunday April 27th, and so have qualified for the big final at Crufts 2009. This is the third year they have entered this and each time they have won at their first qualifying show. The team again consisted of Bree, Harvey, Kash and Chili. More on the Alouann website.

Al-Dahná's Uriah Heep (Hippi) won BOB and CC at the Stange show on Saturday April 26th under judge Andrew Beare from Ireland.
BOS Antheartica's Diamonds And Pearls "Athene"

Al-Dahná's Uriah Heep (Hippi) wins BOB and CC at Stange. BOS Antheartica's Diamonds And Pearls "Athene" Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen Photo: Eva Skogland

You can read more about Hippi, his results, some judge critiques, and his pedigree, as well as some pictures of him and his family on the page about Hippi.

Sasha went to the vet today to get the last herpes injection. The vet also gave her a quick checkup, and said that there will be many pups and that the whelping should be easy as far as he could see. We put Sasha on the scales and she came in at just over 32 kg, that is up 10 kg, and with 10 days to go, who knows where it will end.

We have also taken a few pictures of Sasha that shows how big she has become.

A very big Sasha Owners: Torill & Bent-Ove Knudsen

A few updates to the site:

• The About Al-Dahná page has finally been completed
• Links to Harvey's and Sasha's pages added to the homepage for usability reasons
• Harvey's very good results from Belgium has been added and the pedigree tables updated

Sasha is now getting very large, and everthing is allright so far. I'll try to get a recennt picture of her onto the site soon.

The big updates this time around is of course the ultrasound confirmation of Sasha being in whelp. With that in mind two new pages have been added: One about Sasha, her siblings and pedigree, and one page about Harvey, his siblings and pedigree. This is to show more information about each dog to prospective puppy buyers.

A new version of Al-Dahnás guestbook has also been added to the website. The old guestbook is still available on the old site.

Some new links have been added to the links page. If you think we are missing some links, please send an email to Torill Knudsen or the Webmaster.

Al-Dahná's old gallery has been moved to the new page, just check the new Al-Dahná's Gallery out. The old version will still be available on the old site for a while, but no more updates or corrections will be made to the old page. Several new gallery pages will be added to the new site as and when time permits.

As some of you may have noticed, the Al-Dahnás website is somewhat different from earlier incarnations. The site is being redesigned. The current, temporary, version looks a bit like the future version, but lacks a lot of the functionality of the future site. The reason for this early debut of the site is the mating Harvey and Sasha.

The old site is still available from the menu (below the logo), or from this link: Old Pages