Thurayah - 'Lublub'
Imp. Qatar
Born 6.5. 2002
Owned by Micaela Lehtonen
Bred by George & Sylvia Zimmerman

Some years ago while searching for desert Salukis Gail Goodman told me about an American couple, George and Sylvia Zimmerman, who lived and worked in Qatar and had a gorgeous smooth Saluki bitch called Binte. Binte was a smooth white bitch purely from Bani Murra tribal lines. Her breeder was the Ruler of Bahrain and the Zimmermans were at that time looking for a suitable desert male for her. I immediately wrote to the Zimmermans.

With the help of Shaikha Danah Al Khalifa they were able to aquire a smooth Saudi male bred by Bedouins near the Kuwaiti border. Local Salukis are named only after they've proved themselves in the hunt and this young male had earned the name Qartas (something like "the arrow that always hits its mark" or words to that effect). He had been taken out on his first hunt with the other "pups" and while the others put up a hare at full speed our young hero had spotted a quarry more to his liking: gazelle were grazing in the distance. He made his first kill that day and had so earned his name.
 
A gazelle hunter certainly doesn't seem to have to be large: Qartas is 60 cm in height! He was later given to an esteemed guest, the Bahraini Ruler's brother Shaikh Rashid Al Khalifa. He is said to have single-handedly (so to speak) killed 5 gazelle at this time.

Later yet he was given to the Zimmermans (at around 3 years of age) and re-named Jamil (handsome). We began waiting for Binte's heat but unfortunately the first mating did not take and the next was at an awkward time for the Zimmermans, so we set our sights on her next heat, estimated around the fall of -02.

During this time they lost two beloved elderly desert Salukis at 17 years of age, so when their vet in Qatar offered them a smooth tribal bitch he had rescued from an uncaring owner, the Zimmermans took her in. She was a tiny (55 cm) grizzle bitch originally from the Bedouin in the Al Hassa province. And -you guessed it!- Qartas/Jamil decided he would rather have a family with this lovely young thing and the illicit affair promptly produced four pups, the boys Barq and Halul and the girls Yazi and Thurayah.
 
I had estimated that Binte's pups would be eligeble for new homes around Christmas so I was really surprised at the e-mail I received in May: "Your pup has been born, just another dam. Do you want her anyway?" After the initial shock the answer was a resounding "YES PLEASE!", as I thought Yasmine met my criteria just as Binte had. An additional bonus was that these Salukis greatly resembled our Israeli imports, apparently a typical look of many smooth hounds in the southern regions of the breed's vast area of origin.

A manic scramble to get the pup to Finland began, further complicated (so I thought) by the fact that the Zimmermans and their Salukis were moving back home to Virginia, USA before their next assignments in Tunisia next year. I went round on e-mail lists trying to find someone who would travel this and that route at this particular time, since I needed to get my puppy over as a carry-on because there was a heat embargo on shipping animals as cargo in the summer.
 
I found help closer than I had anticipated: Gambles to the rescue! I had arranged for a young woman from Missouri, Lindsey Gamble, to get a job as a kennel girl for my Muhafhaf's breeder in France. They had since adopted his brother Sayyad and Lindsey's mother Stephanie suggested Lindsey could bring my pup to Paris on her vacation to the States.
 
There were lots of twists and turns to this plot resulting in Lindsey flying out to Paris especially to deliver my baby (...) and my equally wonderful cousin Sussie Åström fetching the pup from Paris to Finland. Amazing people: the Zimmermans, the Gambles, my cousin, without whom this would all have been pretty impossible.

I received pics of the pups from which I was to choose which of the bitches to take. They were both very similar but I had a little crush on Thurayah (star). I asked Gerd Andersson's (kennel Dar el Hindiyas, Sweden) opinion and to my joy she picked Thurayah too though she admitted it was, like with me, more a feeling than anything else. So the choice was made.

Stephanie had also fallen for these pups so it was decided she would take Yazi. I had long saved the name Lublub (tender) for a smooth bitch and that became Thurayah's pet name. Sir Terence Clark pointed out that Lublub is the masculine of the word, Lublubah being the feminine, but the Zimmermans thought we should stick with Lublub and so we did.

Lublub and family are registered in Bahrain and since she only has two generations registered she was admitted to the domestic registry our other desert Salukis belong to. Lublub has had fine offspring here and I hope to have more from her. It isl also interesting to follow Stephanie's breeding in the US with Muhafhaf's brother Sayyad and Lublub's sister Yazi. They had a litter together in November 2004.

Lublub is a beautifully made, moderate little bitch with an ego the size of the Sahara ;) She was handed to me at my gate in a thunderstorm with 8 dogs barking and waltzed in like she owned the place. She is just a dream, so beautiful, so courageous and such a bundle of kisses.

Lublub's motto is "smile and the world smiles with you", and she spreads this joyful gospel very effectively. She has a lovely smile that displays her pearly whites. Her dam and her sister have this as well and Lublub has passed on this charming mannerism to some of her pups. Our bundle of joy is also keen on the lure.

Lublub became Auntie Lublub in the early spring of 2003 when Farha had her litter of nine pups. Lublub was nearly bursting with happiness at the blessed event and was forever sneaking into the whepling box where she would stand marveling at the babies, smiling toothily with her tail wagging furiously. Her happiness was boundless when the pups joined the pack and Lublub threw herself into puppy care with the same intensity she brings to all her activities :)

At her first show, the 2003 Saluki Specialty, Lublub was awarded "excellent" by British Saluki breeder Karen Fischer (Ruweis). At the Saluki Show 6 weeks later she was 4th in juniors with Swedish Saluki breeder Karin Hedberg (Kashmanis) judging. Lublub made her lure-coursing debut in September 2003 and placed 11th. At the Saluki Specialty in 2006 Linda Scanlon of the US gave her a "very good".

In 2007 her heart was auscultated by a cardiologist (no murmurs).

Lublub gave birth to the Qashani N-litter on June 17th, 2005. The sire is Lublub's true love, Israeli import Idan Atiq Rafiq. I've never seen a bitch enjoy her pegnancy like Lublub did. She's always been a cheerfully smiling little thing, but during the pregnancy, right up to the delivery, she smiled more often and more widely than ever before.

The birth was uncomplicated and Lublub was a spectacular Mom, caring for her pups with love and devotion. I kept the bitch Nujaima and co-own the male Najm. Lublub had her second litter in June 2007, with my Syrian import Khattaf. From this litter I kept the male Shadid and placed the only bitch, Shasara, on breeding terms.