We were bereft when Rio, our first Canaan Dog, died alone in our house fire at nine years of age. We missed him, cried for him and told each other stories about him: how sweet, how beautiful he had been. For 15 years we didn’t have a dog in our lives.
Three years ago we decided to settle down in Tucson, and we thought: Wow, if we stop traveling, we could finally get another dog! (Obviously, we wanted another Canaan Dog!) A miracle occurred: Carrie Franz, a Canaan Dog breeder, lived in Vail, AZ, about 40 minutes from our home. And so we found Zev.
Zev is intelligent, beautiful, muscular and independent. He is quite self-assured. Occasionally he ignores us and stares out a window; other times he insists that we play (which is great
exercise for us). There are few dogs nearby, but he loves to play when he can.
When we brought him home three years ago, the desert air was hot and the brilliant July sun had cooked the concrete. It burned Zev’s feet, but he quickly learned to walk from islands of shade to the next, and to hurry when there were none.
Zev now enjoys the desert winds, whether hot or cool. He sniffs the air, looks up at the sky, and sniffs the ground, tracing the path of an animal passerby I cannot smell or see. He has a curious, wild streak. When we take walks, sometimes he detours and surveys the new area. Often, he stops, sits and remains still for considerable periods of time, staring into the distance, listening and looking. When coyotes howl, he barks like a king until their voices fade away.
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