I call her the Queen “La Reina” because with everything she has gone through she still carries herself with grace and style much like a Queen. In less than an year with us, Zena traveled from Cyprus to Argentina, fell in love with her soulmate Belafonte, then moved from Buenos Aires to Cordoba, had 11 puppies and lost Belafonte. We also traveled across the Andes to Chile. It has been 2 years since she moved in with us and I couldn’t imagine being without her.
What more can I say about Zena? She is my best friend. She is a 5 time Gold Medalist in the Nap-Olympics. She does have some heavy competition with her daughter Elsa but I’m sure she can keep her title this year. Seriously, there is no living creature on this earth that is a better napping partner than Zena, trust me. The worst is she will suck you into taking a nap with her. Each morning she wakes me by sitting on my chest sticking her unusually sharp elbows into my ribs and licks my face until I can’t breathe. Then she just sits there staring at me. We snuggle for a while and start our day.
Being with her is relaxing, I actually hear the British Airways Boarding song, Flower Duet from Lakme in my head when we are out for a walk. She is the essence of chill. Nothing phases her. As a mother to 11 puppies, she was a bit overwhelmed and sometimes ran away from them. Yet, was always the protector and tried her best to manage them. She is the best all time dog ever.
Her only issue, she is a very driven hunter. I’m working with her to manage her hunter instincts. Right now, if there is a cat or a cow or a horse or goat or jack rabbit that is in a 1/2 a mile or less radius, Zena will lock onto it and chase it down until it is cornered or runs up a tree/hides. The goal is for her to hear my commands even when she has tunnel vision for the prey. More on my training experiences in later blogs.
To sum it up, do you remember when you were young and you had a tough day you go home and your mom gives you a big hug and suddenly the bad day is gone? That’s Zena. She is like a mom’s hug on a bad day.
How we found each other –
The way Zena and I got together is rather unique. I was always intrigued to know what breed was Belafonte. I knew his mother was a Giant Schnauzer but no one knew his father. So what I used to do to get an idea of the other half of Belo was Google Giant Schnauzer and X breed then look at the photos to see if they matched the appearance of Belo. One night I Googled Giant Schnauzer and Pointer which is what I believe are both Belo and Zena heritage. The top Google response was this photo.
Suddenly I had the same feeling I had when I found Belafonte, instant attraction. I clicked on the link which sent me to an ad asking for someone to adopt her! The only issue was Zena’s location, Cyprus. Just for the hell of it, I emailed Eleni, the poster of the advertisement. We started writing back and forth and the more I knew about Zena, the more I fell in love. Rodrigo and I often talked about getting Belo a playmate since he seemed to strike out with the female dogs often.
When I approached Rodrigo about getting another dog, he said sure sounds great. Then I mentioned that the dog was in Cyprus and well he had an issue. I had to cancel the shared birthday trip to Spain during the month of Nov/Dec I was planning which, by the way cost way more than the cost of shipping Zena but that was my deal in order to get Zena. Through IPATA, I found a wonderful organization based in Cyprus that would help us with Zena’s travel. If you ever need to travel to another country with your dog(s) go to IPATA first the organization provides great information and has references to reputable animal transportation companies. Working closely with Eleni, it took me a solid month to find and arrange the service. It was strange, even Rodrigo was on board with adopting Zena and had no concerns. My mother and sister felt good about Zena too. The only person who had doubt was my dad. I started to listen to dad and thought about backing out. When I wrote to Eleni, she didn’t pressure me but I felt guilty backing out as well as I kept hearing my sister say “F*%K what dad says, why would you ever listen to him?”
I never gave it a thought that maybe Zena and Belo would not get along. I never thought about the possibility she would be a terror of a dog or have major issues. The whole time I wrote back and forth to Eleni about transporting Zena I just knew it was right.
The coolest part is I’ve made a few friends I’ve never formally met because of Zena, the parents of Zena’s brothers. Maybe someday Zena and I will travel to see her brothers and parents or maybe they will come visit us.
running with dogs 