Ziggy - The Wonder Dog

Our family adopted a dog in Kathmandu, Nepal about four years ago. Her name is Ziggy and she is part Llasa Apso and part mystery-breed. She is black and white with beautiful, thick fur that grows long, and a tail that can stretch out straight or roll up in a curl. Although she is a really pretty dog, Ziggy is a "wonder dog" because of her personality.

I know everyone loves their pets, and most people think their pets are special. But Ziggy is more special than most, and I will tell you why.

We got Ziggy from another American family that had a veritable menagerie of animals at their house. Their son had already named her and asked us not to change her name when she came to live with us. I don't know where they found Ziggy, but she had never lived inside the house. I believe that she was mistreated and/or abused by the Nepalese staff that worked for the family. I say this because, when she first came to live with us and we would try to pet her, she would cower. She had no personality at all, and my husband declared her as "dumb as a rock".

She was house trained, even though the previous owners said that she was not. Ziggy displayed her first talent by going to the door when she needed to exit and barking. Likewise, when she needed to come in, she would stand outside the door and bark. My husband spent many hours trying to teach Ziggy to play. He would crawl around on all floors, then go around the corner and peek his head out to engage Ziggy. She would just ignore him. We also tried to teach her to "shake a paw". We showed her treats and picked up her hand over and over, but she just never seemed to get it.

Ziggy was a wary and anxious pet at first. She would bark at visitors and attack any other animals that came to our house. I did a little research on the Llasa Apso breed to learn more about what made Ziggy tick. I found that Llasa Apsos, which come from Llasa, the capital of Tibet, were especially bred to be guardians of the house. While Tibetan Mastiffs guard the yard and environs outside the home, Llasa Apsos are skilled at instantly recognizing intruders and strangers, and can easily identify them from family and friends.

We continued to work with Ziggy until we finally had a breakthrough, and from that point on she just seemed to get smarter and smarter. Her repertoire of tricks is now impressive - she can shake a paw and give a "high five", sit and lie down, "speak", jump through a hoop, dance on her back legs, and put her paws together to pray (or say Namaste). She even likes to play "where is it"? If you put a treat in one hand and hold both fists out, she will place her paw on the hand with the treat.

Most amazing of all - Ziggy tries to answer the phone! We kept coming home from work or school to find the telephone missing from its cradle. Searches would reveal that it had been left in odd places - under a sofa cushion on in someone's bed. The, one day, I was home alone with Ziggy when one of the kids called. The answering machine picked up before I could reach the phone. When I got to it, I found that my daughter was leaving a message, and that Ziggy, who had heard her voice, was grabbing the phone in her mouth and running off with it. She ended up planting it wherever she relaxed. She heard the voice of family members coming out of that handset, and she was trying to connect!

It is hard to believe that Ziggy is the same dog who initially came to live with us. Although she is still vicious towards other animals (she hunts and kills groundhogs, and once she killed a cat), Ziggy has been unbelievably tolerant towards our three kids. They dress her up in doll clothes, make her float on a raft in the pool, and wear her on their shoulders like a backpack.

Ziggy is about 5 years old now and she is a special member of our family. She mopes when we leave the house and goes bonkers when we return. She always makes a scouting run around the house when we drive up. She sulks when we get out the suitcases, and also when we give her a haircut. Most endearing of all, she will next to us on the sofa and lay her head on our chests when we sit down as if to say, "I adore you".

I have never met another dog like Ziggy and doubt if I ever will. I believe that we were blessed to adopt Ziggy and that she was blessed to adopt us.