Adopted by Stein Family on September 22, 2012 – Danbury, CT
While volunteering at VAFA Animal Shelter in Iran this summer, I thought how good it would be if every volunteer from outside of Iran would take a dog back with them and find it a good home. With that in mind, I decided to take one of the healthy puppies back to the USA with me.
I spoke with Mr. Ali Sani, director of the shelter, who agreed with my idea. We checked out all the healthy puppies and we decided on two who seemed rather healthy. After running blood work on the two and having them checked over by the shelter’s veterinarian, I chose Azarakhsh who was a bit timid. I emailed Azarakhsh’s photo to my son in the USA and asked him if any of his friends would be interested in adopting him. My son emailed back that one of his colleagues at work was interested in adopting Azarakhsh, but she wouldn’t be completely sure until she and her family met him in person. I wasn’t worried because I knew I would find Azarakhsh a home if this one didn’t work out.
Azarakhsh came to the USA with me and stayed at my house for almost a month before Lori and her family came back from vacation and visited him. During that month, he gained weight and became less and less shy. He played with Max and Saachi, my two VAFA dogs and tried to chase the cats. He became bilingual and started being very much attached to me. By this time, I had shortened his name to Azzie so that people in the USA wouldn’t have trouble addressing him. Azzie was very popular at Quarry Ridge Animal Hospital where I took him to be seen by Dr. Cobelli. As always, Dr. Cobelli did not charge me anything and put Azzie on medications for worms and his cough.
When Lori, Jan, and Dexter Stein came to meet Azzie I could tell they liked him very much, but they didn’t want to commit until they had had a private talk. However, shortly after they arrived home, they called me and said they wanted Azzie. Soon after, the paperwork was completed through Fara Ravon and Maryam Kamali and I was able to deliver Azzie to the Steins. At the Steins, I noticed how much care had gone into making Azzie feel welcome. There was a new bed for him, new toys, and a new collar and leash. The only item that wasn’t new was the crate which belonged to their former (now deceased) dog. Azzie now lives in a house with three acres of land near a lake. He runs free because of the invisible fence and is allowed on the sofas and beds. He loves his new family and is less and less timid each day. As I hoped, he traded his attachment to me with an attachment to Lori.
This is what Lori says: “Azzie is a wonderful dog. He is your typical puppy with much energy. He loves to sleep on his back with his legs up in the air! He loves one particular blanket and runs around it all the time and then jumps on it. He jumps on the sofa and sits with us and loves to go outside. He runs back in when the neighbor starts mowing his lawn or a truck drives by because he is afraid of loud sounds. He developed a little rash on his face which the veterinarian treated. He loves food and eats everything we give him. Azzie is a beautiful dog and we get a lot of compliments from people when we take him out. He is very much attached to me but is starting to warm up to the men in the family, my husband Jan and our son Dexter.”
Sheyda Ardalan
