Farha al-Faifa
Imp. Israel
Born 16.6. 1999
Owner - Micaela Lehtonen
Breeder - Sultan Abu Rekiek

In the summer of -98 my dogs and I moved to our family's country cottage in Hauho where the dogs have access to a large yard at all times and there is a good forest for running the dogs within a reasonable distance. At about that time I read Gail Goodman's book "The Saluqi -Coursing Hound of the East", that focuses on desert bred Salukis and their history and heritage. It was a real turning point. In the books of my childhood I had read about the adventures of a Saudi Arabian import and had since dreamt of a desert bred of my own. After buying my first Saluki I asked why breeders in Scandinavia had not taken advantage of the possibility of acquiring new blood from provenly functional desert lines. I was told importing was next to impossible and at any rate desert hounds were so ugly..
 
The dream lingered and when I read Gail's book I realised that it might be possible to import desert dogs after all. I immediately wrote to Gail and soon received a wonderful package of photos, articles and encouraging words. Thus Gail became my first mentor. She provided countless contacts in the DB community and together with them gave me new insight into the breed, providing a much more sensible approach to its essence. It felt like a home-coming, having my heretical ideas echoed and refined.

I wrote to several people asking about DBs until Gail put me in touch with Dr Zafra Sirik, allrounder judge and Greyhound breeder and chairperson of the Israeli Sighthound Club. Her pet project is travelling in the Negev desert tattooing and registering Bedouin hounds. I wrote pleading letters to Zafra and after meeting her in Finland in -99 she agreed to try to find me two desert Salukis to import, as I wanted a male and a female for my future breeding.
 
My friend Taija Jokela helped out in the project and also found lure-coursing judge Seija Kotti-Rantala who also had dreamt of a DB of her own. It was agreed that she would buy the male and so the wait began. (In August -99 Gail did a tour of the Negev and Sinai deserts and met and photographed my future puppy with relatives, though at the time we did not know she would be mine.) Later that year Zafra found both our puppies which we okayed from photos via e-mail.

In February 2000 it finally happened: our desert Salukis arrived! My bitch, the smooth Farha al-Faifa was then 8 months old and everything I had hoped for. She had lived with her Bedouin breeder Sultan Abu Rekiek in the Negev desert until 6 months of age when Zafra had picked her up and taken her to Shai Spector, a Jewish Saluki fancier, who had Farha dewormed and vaccinated. And here she finally was! It took a while for Farha to get her bearings in her new life, especially the cold and snowy Finnish winter disgusted her and she had to be carried outside.

I am immeasurably happy with Farha who in DB fashion is a leggy, moderately angulated and squarely proportioned hound with a wonderful compact body. She moves with light, effortless grace and is very charismatic, a formidable presence. She is obedient, affectionate and people-oriented and demands attention.
 
She's a curious, intelligent, courageous and intense alpha-bitch who doesn't like to start a fight but will not tolerate rude behavior in other dogs. Living with her is always educational and rewarding and she has taught me what a Saluki should be and in so doing has showed me exactly what I want from my breeding. I truly hope she will be the foundation bitch I've been working myself up to.

Farha thoroughly enjoyed motherhood and cared diligently for her pups. Especially touching was when the pups were just a couple of days old and Farha did not like to leave them even to pop out and pee. Her solution was to wrap the puppy blanket like turban to form a basket, lift all nine pups into it along with her own bowl of food and after carefully covering the bundle quickly go outside. I was so touched! She also carried lots of food into the whelping box: one morning I was changing the blankets and found an entire pig's heart nestled among them!

It was also lovely to watch how patient and trusting Farha was when showing off her pups. The only ones she wasn't quite sure about were rambunctious young children and of course strange dogs. I had thought because of her background Farha might be wary of allowing strangers into the whelping box but no such thing. Family, friends and strangers were welcomed and the rest of the pack was allowed to visit the pups as well. When the litter joined the rest of the pack at just under 4 weeks Farha was happy to share the care and education duties with the others.

I made a deliberate decision not to wean the pups, instead letting Farha decide on how and when to do things as well as letting the pups live within the pack. The pups suckled occasionally until about 3,5 months although the bulk of their diet consisted of raw food according to BARF principles. Farha had tons of milk. Farha only stopped regurgitating her food for them when the pups were four months old!

Farha is my treasure, my pride and trusted friend and because she is also the first desert Saluki to be imported to Finland I am donated a trophy to the Saluki Show in her name in 2003, to be given each year to the Best Desert Bred shown.

Farha is was beautiful than ever since her puppies - I constantly found myself looking at her in awe: what a gorgeous hound she is! This COMPLETELY unbiased opinion was additionally validated at the 2003 Saluki Show where Farha was 5th in the open class (shown by our new handler Sanja Kuusela) and also won her own Farha Trophy, a perpetual trophy I've donated in her honor to be given to the Best Desert Bred (here she was handled by Hajum's owner Anna Karrila). The judge was Swedish Saluki breeder Karin Hedberg (Kashmanis).
 

As autumn turned to winter Farha developed a strange itch. In January 2004 we had her tested and it seems she's developed an allergy to house dust mites. I had intended to breed her again in a year or so, but due to this allergy the H-litter would remain Farha's only - and all the more precious - litter. Later 4 of her 9 pups developed autoimmune diseases, further validating the decision not to breed from that line. Fortunately Farha's itch only surfaces on very cold winter days and even then is mild enough not to warrant medication.

Farha has won BIS Desert Bred at the Saluki Show three years in a row - 2003, 2004 and 2005. Below Farha and her son Hajum as BOS DB.

Farha's sire - Regab of Abu Rekiek

Farha's dam - Risha 3 of Abu Rekiek

Farha's doublegrandsire - Pontiac