Re: new puppy (was chair recommendations)

See, I knew you had some redeeming qualities :-)

I've seen Salukis on the dog shows. Absolutely beautiful and so graceful! They'll both eventually get along, I suspect. We love Dobies and Boxers, too.

Our family has had dogs for as long as I can remember. Most have been mixed breeds, because I do so love to *save* them. SO and I currently have a 10-year-old female lab/shepherd mix (mostly lab) who came to us by fate. Long story short, we found her mother (shepherd) by the roadside. Someone had shot her in the leg. Now everyone knows shepherds aren't generally a trusting species, but she let me clean her leg and when I opened the door to my car, she got right in. I believe she knew we were trying to help her. We took her to the vet and got her all fixed up. About two weeks later, someone put flyers in mailboxes about a missing shepherd. It was her, of course, but we'd become so attached by then! Her family really missed her, so we called and they came and got her. Sad day. A week or so later, they called me and wanted to know if we wanted one of her pups (Tasha). She was born in February of 97, when their baby was due, and they were going to keep her. Well their baby was stillborn, and they couldn't bear to have Tasha around. So she was shuffled around to some relatives, but no one really wanted her. You probably know labs don't settle down until they're more than two years old. I took her, sight unseen. If she had even one iota of her mother's personality, we would be happy. Needless to say, she's been a joy. Don't know what we're gonna do when she's gone...

Marsha/Ohio

Barbara Carlson wrote:

Gosh, Marsha, we have something in common after all!

We got another Saluki. Her official name is Omens Alef Aviva, but she is just Ava for short. She is a red with black fringe, one of my favorite Saluki colors (they come in every imaginable color--our other saluki is fawn and cream with black fringe) One of the Pedigree TV Commercial last year used a pair of black-fringed red Salukis.

Xandy is pretending Ava doesn't exist, but she'll get over it. We lost our wonderful old Doberman Eclipse to lymphatic cancer last month. She had been diagnosed over 2 years before and given only about 6 months to live, but she responded better than anyone expected to treatment, and we had her for more than 2 more years. I thought my husband might want another Dobey, but when the opportunity to get another Saluki came up, he said let's go get her right away--so we did.

I love the Salukis. This is our fifth one. They are beautiful, extremely smart, but very independent and not the easiest dogs to train, but they are also very loving. They are the canine version of the "starved fashion model" look and people think you don't feed them. Ava is going through a rapid growth stage right now and very thin looking, so I won't take pictures until we get some meat on her bones! If you are not familiar with the breed, they are greyhound like in looks, but slighter build and short silky hair with most of them having "feathering" of the tail, ears, and legs. At distances of more than 3 miles they are the fastest mammals on earth, and fabulous athletes, and are the oldest breed of domesticated dog--descended from the Asian wolf. They are very playful dogs, a lot of fun, and good watchdogs except people don't take them seriously because of their glamorous looks! Our Doberman used to scare people but was totally harmless. Xandy absolutely would protect me if necessary.

We've been showing Xandy and she has been doing quite well, and we will probably show Ava, too. She's 4 1/2 months old now, and we will show her in puppy classes in the spring shows. I'm too old to show horses any more--and too broke. But, the dogs are more affordable. Ava was a gift. Xandy's breeder heard we had lost Eclipse, and said she had a puppy that was shy and needed her own home and offered her to us.

You did want to know about my puppy, right? Get me talking about my animals and I don't stop! What are your family pets?

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Frivolous Spending
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  • Re: Why are we putting up with this?
    ... It is said that the Saluki is the fastest mammal on earth at distances of ... more than 3 miles. ... and found dogs to be far more intelligent than previously thought. ... My older Saluki is ...
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  • OT: New Puppy
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  • Re: new puppy (was chair recommendations)
    ... We got another Saluki. ... Xandy is pretending Ava doesn't exist, ... puppy classes in the spring shows. ... We don't do long drives often, but when we do, I usually drive, and I ...
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