Ziva - Girl with the Crazy Eyes

Chien Bizarre indeed!

Ziva, our puppy with the Crazy Eyes, came from the same breeder who gave us Coyote and Neo, Jalerran Siberians, out of Northwest Pennsylvania.  We had lost one of our rescue huskies, Shaka, leaving us with only Coyote and Bailey. Three seems like the perfect number of Siberians for us. Late in December 2009 Maggie and I made the 5+ hour trek on Friday after work.

The plan was to get close to Jess’s place, spend the night at a motel and pick up the new puppy in morning and head home. However, mother nature had other plans for us. When we started out the weather forecast called for 1 to 3 inches snow by morning. No big deal, I had a Subaru 4 wheel drive car and was used to driving in snow, and it was pretty much all major highways. But the further we went on our journey, the forecasts kept changing. First 1 to 3 inches, became 4 to 6, then 6 to 8 and then 8 to 12 and finally 12+. Time for Plan B, which was made up on the fly. We called Jess and she agreed to meet us and do the exchange that night. We met Ziva for the first time about 11:30pm and after a quick few words, headed back home in advance of the storm.

First day

Driving at 80mph on I-80 the storm finally caught up with us outside of State College, still 3-4 hours from home. I kept pushing and we finally made it home around 4am. At that point the roads were covered with about 4 inches and hadn’t been plowed. It was a tough last hour.

Steal me from my home eh? I'm going to make your life miserable!

Totally drained, I went to bed hoping to get a few hours of sleep. However, our girl Ziva, had other ideas. She spent the next 3 hours screaming at the top of her lungs in her crate about 5 feet from my bed. I don’t blame her, I’m sure it was a traumatic experience for her, being ripped away from the only life she knew. Both of us were miserable that morning.

So quite the in-auspicious start to our life together. Spoiler alert: It got better.

So where did the appellation ‘Crazy Eyes’ come from? There’s nothing wrong with her eyes, they were just different colors. Her left eye was brown, and her right eye was blue. Lot of folks believe all Siberians have blue eyes. But that’s not true. Siberian Huskies are working breed dogs. What’s important is body structure, good posture. Can the dog efficiently pull sleds for long distances? Strong musculature that’s in balance. Cosmetic considerations such as hair color or eye color are irrelevant. Sibes come with blue eyes, brown eyes, one of each (like Ziva called heterochromia) or even one eye partially brown and blue. To us, the two-color eyes were something to celebrate, one of the things that made Ziva unique and striking.

It is said that the brown eye watches over the earth, while the blue eye can see heaven.

Another trait was her coat. Everybody loves puppies, they’re cute and their puppy fur coat is so soft. Sibes have 2 layer coats, a dense underlayer (which you don’t see until they start shedding) and coarse guard hairs which poke through (which gives them their color). For all her life, Ziva never lost that thick fluffy puppy coat. In the middle of the night when I awaken and find a dog 6 inches from my face, all I have to do is reach out and touch. Ziva’s coat was instantly identifiable.

Hanging with Coyote - it's in their DNA

We also loved her “helicopter tail”. When she was happy and excited, she would whirl it round and round. We never had a Siberian do that.

Ziva was a happy, fun-loving puppy. She fit right in with Coyote and Bailey, holding her own in the mock fights, going for hikes, and learning how to destroy things – a skill she got from Bailey.

Going for a hike right from the start

Bailey teaching the younger generation

The 3 Amigos - (from left) Coyote, Bailey and Ziva

Life continued swimmingly for several years until Coyote, our male alpha, died from complications of Lyme disease.  That was a turning point for the happy go-lucky puppy. All of a sudden the pack dynamics made her the alpha and surprisingly she took it quite seriously. While still the loving dog with us, she made sure that everybody, and that meant every dog including all the neighborhood dogs knew she was “the Boss”. Every new dog she met on our neighborhood walks was promptly thumped until they acknowledged the Queen. Once that was done, she was happy to play and walk with them.

Along the way, she developed her master hunting skills. Her trophies included squirrels (of course), snakes, birds, rabbits and groundhogs. She was tough, but she always brought them back to me and dropped them on command.

This squirrel is mine - any questions?

Despite her striking terror into the animal kingdom, she was always gentle and loving with people. Especially kids loved to touch her silky fur.

Some time after Coyote passed, Turbo the piebald puppy joined us to bring the pack back to three dogs. Poor Ziva, the next year or so, Turbo would non-stop chew, tease, poke and bark at her. Turbo is just a friendly delightful dog, and definitely doesn’t want to be in charge. Ziva tolerated this with an amazing amount of grace, never once getting frustrated with the young pup.

Turbo joins the pack

That wasn’t the case when Neo joined us another year later.  Neo showed up with a giant chip on his shoulder.  “Attention: you finally have a worthy male to take charge. Away with you Ziva. It’s just not done to have a female in charge.”

Alpha Wanna-be Neo - trying to suck up to Ziva - it didn't work

So how that work out? Ziva basically told Neo to F-off. Unlike the warm and tolerant reception Turbo got, Ziva gave him the cold shoulder and ignored him most of the time. Neo, not the brightest of our pack, finally learned to back off and bide his time. Eventually he would try a dominance move every day – trying to go through the door first; putting his head over her neck, etc – “just checking if you’re ready to abdicate Queen”, but Ziva held firm. All the way to the end, she didn’t take any shit from Neo. But she learned to tolerate him - and maybe like him a little bit.

 I mentioned that Neo isn’t the brightest of our dogs, but that isn’t the case with Ziva. She was one smart dog. A master opener of gates and doors. I can still feel her eyes on me when opening up a gate – “So that’s how she’s doing that….hmmm” I would often be surprised by the appearance of Ziva when she should have been crated or in a blocked off area. 

She was quite a headstrong dog, when she wanted something, or didn’t like something, she went for it. And in combination with her smarts, she often succeeded.

I'll confess to being a major dog lover, but my pups aren't kids in fur suits and I don't treat them as such. But they definitely are family and they are an important part of our lives.

After 10 years together, I could go on and on.  But what I miss most with Ziva are the little moments that weave into the fabric of our lives:

·       Waiting patiently for my coffee cup at the end of breakfast, lapping it up and then waiting for me to raise and tilt the mug until she could get the last drops.

·       Demanding to be let in after I went to bed, then running upstairs and demanding 10 mins of head nuzzles and face rubbings until she went back out to sleep on the porch, me complaining the entire time

·       For the last 10 years, she was always popping up and off the porch to come greet me when I came home, whether it was 5 mins or 5 days later. Eventually Turbo joined her, but Ziva was always there, softly wagging her tail and wanting some head scratches.

·       On random occasions, bouncing up to me to rub her face and get her ears scratched, but somehow I get maneuvered into scratching her butt, her favorite place. She was quite subtle and sneaky about it. And successful too.

·       The ritual we always played when it was time for a walk. I’d come out onto the porch with the harnesses and leashes. Neo would run up to me demanding I put the harness on right now! Turbo would hang back and wait his turn, but Ziva… She immediately turns and walks about 50 feet away and then begins a through inspection of the back yard as if she has never been there before. While the rest of us are waiting, she’s contentedly wandering around. Calls to ‘get over here’ are studiously ignored. Finally, after some internal calculation, she would run up and be ready to get harnessed. This happened every single time we go for a walk for at least the last 5 years.

Her loss was way to sudden. From the first signs on Sunday of distress to losing her on Thursday seemed forever, but also too short.

Somebody on Facebook posted one of my favorite narratives about dogs:

'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life - - like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

Even so, 10 years was way too short. She leaves a big hole in our heart.

As I write this, it’s been several days since she left us.  Neo, even though he wanted so bad to be alpha, has been non-stop howling, missing his Ziva. Me too, Neo, me too.

Neo cuddling up to Ziva

Ziva Lady - Born out of Morpheus X Taylor - Jalerran Siberians

Born October 26, 2009 - Died May 28, 2020