Meet Lana, a six week old Airedale Terrier who triggers smiles and conversation wherever she trots and who has predilections for chilled goat’s milk and chewing designer footwear. She also has a habit of chasing around the living room at high speed on a figure of eight path and having consensual sex with a giant teddy bear called Tedkins. Not bad for a twelve week old.
Lana was born July 8 gone, the day Kim and I flew to Copenhagen, her breeder Gail emailing photographs days later of something resembling a black mouse curled into a ball both eyes closed. There had been a choice of three puppies from a litter in Essex. Both Kim and I taken with Lana’s beige paws that may of course grow out as she matures and her jet black legs turn to tan.
We spent that first day away, on the plane, in the taxi and later at a Korean restaurant, trying to decide upon a name. Kim’s and then our dogs have, in order, been Karla (an Afghan Hound named from a character in a long forgotten Russian novel), Fozzie Bear ( aka Foz because there was something of the Muppet teddy bear about her), Tashi Delek (following a trip to India where we learnt that is what the Dalai Lama says as a greeting – “blessings and good fortune…may all auspicious signs come to you”), and finally and still so sadly Asta (derived from my mother’s nickname for the previous two Airedale’s that she’d taken from a sprightly fox terrier called ‘Asta’ the canine star of the William Powell and Myrna Loy suave detective comedy films of the 1930s known as The Thin Man series).
I’d been keen upon naming her Gertrude (Rudy) and Kim fond of Beatrice (Beaty). However, we kept coming back to Lana the name of the delightful and helpful young travel agent at Hays Travel in Seaford who had arranged our getaway.
Lana and Lana
I like names that end with an ‘a’ and as Kim pointed out you can’t abbreviate Lana only add to it with words like lovely or little. Done deal – Lovely Little Lana. My mother may have thought the name was derived from Lana Turner the 1940s Hollywood star while the Gen Z children of my friends drawn a link with Lana del Rey. Not a bit of it. Our Lana inspiration has fair hair and works down the road.
We collected her from a house in Essex bringing her home over the Dartford Crossing with the City of London in the fluffy grey and white streaked distant west. She remained quiet all the while despite the traffic noise and sirens watching an unfamiliar world rush by.
She couldn’t go for walks outside our home for three weeks without a complete course of vaccinations although seemingly happy to divide her time between tearing around the house and chewing everyone and everything she could sink her milk teeth into before falling into a deep sleep. During one particularly exuberant frenzy I noticed a pink and purple sunset so striking we decided to drive her to the seafront Lana remaining in Kim’s arms all the while. I was impressed with the dramatic stillness of the closing day but that was nothing compared to the effect it had on our puppy: dazzled by the light, the calm and shadowy dog walkers and their upon the Esplanade. The photograph at the top of the page capturing some of her awestruck silence..
Caring for Lana hasn’t been plain sailing. On the upside she has made reluctant friends of a pair of handsome and towering weimeraners, Ruby and Lily, from a few doors down. Their good nature overcoming their occasional irritability at this vigorous newcomer. But Lana adores making friends, with four legs or two. There isn’t a dog she doesn’t want to befriend likewise she is all over visitors to the house. A notable bonding with Mark the decorator who gave her cuddly crocodile.
During routine checkups our vet in Newhaven became increasingly concerned with an ‘arrhythmia’, in layman’s terms an irregular heartbeat. So concerned he recommended Lana see a cardiologist vet in Brighton to undergo tests to ascertain how serious her condition might be. We duly made an appointment for her and in the course of single day she underwent an ECG scan, cardiac ultrasound and a blood test among other things. His conclusion, her heartbeat is a bit irregular but she’s young and far from fully grown and besides if there was anything serious they couldn’t do much if anything due to her age. His principal worry was she is “so good”, so calm perhaps a sign of something sinister. Kim could barely contain herself. Calm, calm she exclaimed she goes bonkers with brief fits of pure craziness.
We were advised to restrict lengthy walks, not to throw balls for her and maybe return in the New Year to see how things are then? Crossing the reception area with four dogs of various ages awaiting their appointments Lana did her by now perfect impression of a supermodel strutting upon a catwalk; maybe that should be dog-walk? Head and tale held erect with that typical and irresistible Airedale bounce in her step. I wonder if Lana and Tashi Delek, once described as the Naomi Campbell of Padstow, are distantly related?
During the drive home she adopted her new role as official backseat driver, resting her jaw on her hammock between the two front seats with her gaze set squarely on the road ahead.
And she is growing fast, so fast. A month ago we could hold her comfortably in both hands. Already it’s a grapple with those legs of hers that appear to have doubled in size. In Essex we’d briefly met the mother who is small for an Airedale and perhaps hoped Lana would be thus contained. Now we’re thinking her dad could have been a colossus. That or we’re overdoing it with the goat’s milk.
