Caravan Hound: 2010

Few days back i received this touching mail. Wanted to share it with all of you.

Dear mr. Das,

the most incredible thing has happened to me over the past couple of weeks and as a result, a small Caravan Hound entered my life. When you realize that I live in the Netherlands, Europe, you might appreciate the strangeness of the events and all the coincidences and synchronicity leading to this result. It is a long story and a rather sad story as well, but one with a happy ending after all.

Some time ago a friend of mine was alerted to an advert for a Caravan Hound on a Dutch internet marketplace. She's the head of a small organization which rescues sighthounds, and even though she had never heard of a Caravan Hound before, she saw that it was a kind of sighthound from the picture attached to the advert and contacted the owners. The owners agreed to let her place the Karwani bitch in a good home and signed her over to my friend. My friend soon found a woman in Germany who was willing to give this exotic hound a new home and they agreed to meet each other half way.

To everybody’s horror, the little female escaped in a parking lot for trucks, in Germany, and they were unable to catch her. She was in unfamiliar surroundings, with unfamiliar people and no one could catch her. She wandered about for 12 days, and during those12 days, the little Caravan Hound had managed to climb a 6 feet tall fence, outrun two police cars chasing her and escape from all sorts of other attempts made by the people in the towns were she was sighted, to capture her. The police even had to block the highway for a short while, because she was seen wandering there too. The woman who was willing to give her a new home, began to have serious doubts and decided it would not be a good idea if she were to come and live with her. My friend of course told me about the nightmare with the Caravan Hound in Germany, and I went over to help her find this strange hound. I had heard of Caravan Hounds before, being a lover of oriental sighthounds myself, but apart from the name I knew nothing at all about this breed, let alone having ever met one in person.

So I "googled" Caravan Hound and came across your wonderful and very informative blog. You obviously love these hounds very much and it really touches my heart to read your stories and watch the beautiful photographs you post there. However, I don't know how I came across this posting, but suddenly I found myself reading about Indy, Cash's granddaughter, going to Holland. There were two adorable pictures of her as a 5 months old pup. There was no doubt about it: this was the very Caravan Hound we were trying to capture in Germany! I send the link to your blog to my friend so she could read it for herself.

Early morning last Sunday, on Pentecost, she was finally caught in a trap, with food inside, they had set up for her. Since I have a completely enclosed garden, (also on top) and am experienced with oriental sighthounds and traumatized hounds, I offered my friend to let her stay with me to recover from her ordeal.

Late afternoon that Sunday Indy arrived in our home. This was the first time I saw her, and I fell in love right away. She is such a special creature, so different again from my two Sloughia's and Galgo mix from Spain. Despite her ordeal, the weightloss, the scars and numerous ticks on her body (71 in total), she was so graceful, I could not help myself but let her into my heart and soul. Indy, as she was called, looks so happy and healthy in those pictures on your blog in july 2008, that it brings tears to my eyes when I look at them again right now, and then at the skinny, scared and traumatized creature lying on a dogbed in my living room.

I felt that Indy should have a new name, to mark a new beginning in her life so I renamed her Sunanda. She has been through enough in her short life. I just wanted to let you know that the beautiful little pup you put on your website is finally safe.

I also made a little blog for her with small stories of how she is doing now, but it is in German, to make it easier for all the German people who helped searching and finally trapping her, to follow. However, the pictures of course speak a thousand words.

http://sunanda-indy.blogspot.com/

Thank you for making such a beautiful blog about Caravan Hounds, and I hope we can stay in touch.

All the best,

Hélène Duncan

The Netherlands