Monday, September 29, 2014

Finding another desert dog



In April 2013 I at last had an opportunity to combine a number of separate options into one trip, to attend a symposium on Canaan dogs, a visit to South Africa, a visit to Dubai to attend the K9 Friends shelter fund raising ball and of course most importantly to choose a desert dog. Dates all seemed to come together ideally.  It was a great trip, meeting new and old friends and a thoroughly enjoyable ball at Raffles Dubai.

K9 Friends puppy ball 2013


The shelter itself is an excellent facility with over a hundred dogs in air-conditioned kennels. I was shown a number of beautiful dogs, each and every one of them lovely and deserving of a home. I found it impossible to select one dog so discussed it with the senior instructor and would have been happy to take any dog they seemed to have had trouble homing for whatever reason. The suggestion was that I take Roxx who had been there for over 3 years. Of course the various other volunteers all had their own favourites but I decided to spend a bit more time with Roxx. I had some one on one time with him in one of the exercise areas and he was a little unsure at first but seemed to warm to me. When I threw any of the toys in the yard, he quickly collected them and placed them neatly back in the toy box. Back in his kennel that he shared with another dog he reached out to me through the fence and I went and sat in the kennel for a time hoping that the longer I spent with him the better the chance that he would remember me after the long journey he had ahead of him. And so the process began. The paper work for adoption was completed and I once more I would would have a Canaan type desert dog in my life. 



Some of the other dogs I considered






Formal introduction to Roxx
Naturally in the exercise yard Roxx was more comfortable with someone he knew than  me
Reaching out to me from his kennel
Contact made
Will you take me home? How could I not?