Ryleigh
The last 15 months have not been good for Tanur dogs. In September, 2014 our then elder dog, Sonali, died of a heart attack running on the beach at age 13. We were left with a five year old Vizsla, Bartok, perhaps the most loving Vizsla we’ve ever owned (over the last 40 some-odd years of owning the breed). In early spring he began acting strangely, perhaps small seizures. He was under the care of a neurologist, but the strange behaviors increased in frequency and severity and in May we left him in the animal hospital for more definitive diagnosis and care – and he had a heart attack and died on his first full day there. We were heartbroken, of course, but soon decided that the house was too empty without a Vizsla to make trouble and to hug, so in June we adopted (from Vizsla Rescue) a 3½-year-old named Lexie, a charming dog whose earlier home(s) had left her nervous. She thrived in Montauk, loving the beach and her new Vizsla friends. And we began to adapt to her counter-surfing ways – the first night we brought her home she ate our dinner off the kitchen counter when I turned my back for a minute. But, just a month after we adopted her, she was diagnosed with lymphoma. The prognosis was not good, but we decided to treat her with chemo – luckily dogs do not suffer the side effects of chemo that humans do, and so she was happy and seemingly healthy. But her remission was very short and in late October we had to put her to sleep – just 4 months after we adopted her.
Again, our home was entirely too empty without a Vizsla, so when Stephanie called us on Thanksgiving day to say that there was a tiny 5-year old V-girl available we didn’t have to think very long before we decided we would adopt her. Together with Nancy Tarbox of Central New England Vizsla Rescue, Stephanie arranged for Ryleigh to take a ferry from New London and Mike met her at the dock at Orient Point and brought her home to Montauk on December 2. She is enormously loving, very active (people who don’t know Vizslas assume she’s a puppy), and a very happy girl. She is indeed tiny—when we got her she weighed only 38 pounds, though I think she’s put on some weight since then, but is anything but frail. Indeed, when she insists on playing tug-of-war with one of her many toys she shows that she’s enormously strong. She loves playing ball on the beach and snuggling in bed. Clearly, we’ve fallen fully in love with her.
And our friends have too. The accompanying photo was taken off a skype call with friends/colleagues in Vietnam who had been nervous about dogs until they visited us and got to know our Vizslas. They wanted to meet Ryleigh, so I let her up onto my lap, and they captured the image and sent it back to me – and I promptly sent the image to friends in Germany, Havana, Mexico, and Paris. Ryleigh is truly an international celebrity.
Judy and Mike Tanur