Our Loonah

2012-10-26

38 days old pups and I

The meaning of her name is Aloonah, love of the desert. We call her Loonah, and also Luna, Lunka and we give her many other endearing names. She is my fiery Italian girl.

When I started making my litter plans, my idea was to keep one puppy for myself. In my mind, there was a wish and an image of a brindle female with attractive markings, however, this was not much important for me. A male or a female, brindle or solid-coloured, it did not matter. It would be our beloved baby anyway. I had received a request for a brindle female a long before the pups were born, so I thought that the first brindle girl to be born already had her family waiting for her, therefore any other female born after her would be mine. And if no other female were born, I would keep a male. The colour was of absolutely no importance for me.

Lunka, 32 days

The first-born puppy was Arwa Walet, an attractively coloured brindle female. This one already has her future owners waiting for her, I thought and I prepared myself mentally for the fact that one day, this little beauty would leave for her new home. Then the two males were born, our sunny boy Afellah Tariy and my beloved big boy Agg Etebel. When the fourth baby, my Loonah, was born into my hands, I was happy and I thought that this little beauty with large markings could be mine. A marvellous creature, dark brindle female Aman Iman, was the last one to be born. I loved all the puppies with all my heart, I loved equally all of them; in each of them, I could see something unique and admirable and the most beautiful from my point of view. I was just like any other human “dog-mum” in love with her babies. Whom should I keep for myself?

Finally I decided to apply a special selection procedure. Usually, when a breeder decides which puppy to keep, the level and quality of conformance is the most important feature for her/him… but… The Azawakh is not a dog for everybody and it is important for the future owner and the dog to match. That was more important for me than anything else. I did not want the future owner to find out, after some time, that s/he cannot cope with the character of the puppy. So when I was contacted by the people interested in the puppies, I offered them a puppy whose character, in my opinion, would match the new owner’s lifestyle. The character of the puppies could be observed at a very young age and although I know that it is the education which finally shapes the dog’s character most, there are still characteristics with which the puppy is born which remain and which must be taken into account in the training and education of the puppy in order to make her/him a nice companion.

Lovely little Loonah, 50 days old

And all the time, my attention was focused on Loonah. I liked her. Oh, how much I liked her! Between the eye-catching charismatic Arwa Walet and graceful little Aman Iman, Loonah usually was not in the centre of the attention of our visitors. As time went on, however, her unique character became apparent. She had her own opinion of the world well-formed when only three weeks old. She was the first one to climb over the whelping box walls, and I often found her in the morning sitting in the dog bed outside the whelping box, wriggling with joy, my dark beauty, looking like a little swallow fallen out of her nest. A hyperactive little thing, never tired, that either slept or played like a little hurricane, unable to sit still… nothing in between. I understood quite soon that to manage this little doggy girl would not be an easy task in the future. That she would be fun and a perfect friend, but on other hand, her will would be very strong as well as her love for freedom. And that her education would be a challenge for her future owners.

Luna, 12 weeks

In my mind, I compared our three little puppy girls to three elements - Earth, Water and Fire:

Arwa Walet – Gazelle, the Daughter of the Desert – will always represent for me the Earth, a firm ground under one’s feet, a soul to lean on… well-balanced, wise…

The graceful beauty Aman Iman, whose name’s meaning is Water is Life in the Desert, is like water, a crystalline clear little stream, running sometimes lively, sometimes faster, sometimes changing in a smoothly flowing stream, metamorphosing in wild little river after some time…

Aloonah Tarha, my Love of the Desert, is like a fire, a playful little flame, jumping from place to place, that will warm up your hungry heart, but which may unexpectedly change into a scorching heat, blazing flames difficult to tame…