Sasha came to us in September 2009 via the GSRS at age 15 months, after her previous family couldn't look after her any more. She immediately slotted into our wee family and stayed with us for 12 wonderful years before cancer took her from us.

When we got her, the vet told us we would have her most likely for only 7-8 years as her hips were so bad. However, every day she exceeded expectations and her capacity for coping with the pain she was sometimes in as a result of her hips was incredible. We worked so hard to keep her in regular daily exercise and manage her weight so it wouldn't put a burden on her hips. As she got older, we modified everything we could, even family holidays, to work round her and her needs and she thrived.

We have so many lovely memories. She was so calm, quiet and unflappable. We could take her anywhere and nothing ever phased her. She was brilliant with people. She would go into my mum's care home and let everyone pet her and fuss over her - we even considered applying for her to be a Therapet at one point.

She would sing when she was at the groomers, giving us her complete repertoire of songs from the moment she arrived to the moment she left. She could be so expressive without doing very much - on the day we got our puppy Kai she came and sat next to me and stared at me for the longest time, in clear protest at this new arrival. Whenever I went to hang out the washing she would come and dance round my feet to get me to play with her.

She was a terrible guard dog! Whenever anyone came in the house she would look up in mild interest and leave them to get on with it. We even had a motorbike stolen from right outside the window she lay under and she didn't let out a peep, but then for some reason growled continuously at the policeman who came to take a statement the next day! (we later worked out it was because she didn't like hi viz jackets). Our dog walker often told us that she should be paying us for Sasha's services as she would watch over the puppies and keep the other dogs calm.

When she passed away we got so many messages from friends and family telling us what a beautiful soul she was and how missed she would be. We cant thank the GSRS enough for choosing us to be her forever family.