importborzoi's Journal

2:08am: Start Negotiating...
Chapter One. Start Negotiating

I met V, and saw my first Borzoi, 9 November 2003. He had brought them in to be groomed by D, and I was encouraged to stop by. Apparently I made a good impression; and I was impressed by him. And the Borzoi -- even funnier looking in person. But they hold themselves so well, there is definately an aristocratic air to them.

Tonight (16 November 2003) I was asked to meet with D and V to discuss more details of the transaction. Turns out even more was planned; we all have lots of questions. Before the dog-show-world-is-full-of-fun-contracts-game starts, we figured we'd take the discovery process to the source. V knew someone who was fluent in Russian, and so a plan was implemented to call the breeder.

I'll be brief about the translator. She lives in a big house in Squirrel Hill, with apparently other various people. The house is covered in chotskis, travel-found items; one room, for example, has millions of different elephant shaped items. Our translator is blind, and apparently speaks 10 languages, with primary fluency in at least English, Russian, and Chinese. V claims she's a talented singer.

Moscow is off by 8 hours. The plan to call the breeder failed. Our first attempt, at 7:30pm EST got us a groggy male letting us know the breeder was returning from a show in Belarus, and would be back in 3 hours. We all agreed to meet back in 4.5, given Russian transportation, and dispersed.

Hours later we reconvened. Here's the scene. It is midnight, and I am in a strange house in Squirrel Hill, with a girl I barely know the last name of, a Peruvian artist I've briefly met, and a blind woman brewing Chinese tea and then fluently determining from a young school girl in Moscow that we would be best off calling again tomorrow because the breeder still isn't home yet.

So this is all to be continued...

9:27am: Background
Chapter Zero, Buy The What-Now?

So I have this friend, D. She's a dog geek -- groomer by trade, handler on the weekends. The breed of choice, the type she co-owns, is the Borzoi, refered to as the Russian Wolfhound. Her co-owner is a nice man named V. He's an architect, but with several music performance groups and has had numerous gallery shows of his watercolors. In addition to co-owning D's Borzoi, he also owns one. Maybe the complications over why he has that dog will be revealed later... they are relevant to the saga.

This is Lacey... the enemy. Lacey has been rocking the dog, and Borzoi, scene as of late. And what's worse is, not only is she the number one Borzoi in the country, she hails from nearby in Ohio. So they go to the same shows.

V and D are hooked on Borzoi. They started thinking of how to beat Lacey, and, within the search space of legal moves, it means getting another dog. Lacey is derived from probably the best Borzoi breeder in North America, and so it would be unlikely they could get a contemporary that could beat her... from the US. But wait... Borzoi are Russian.


...And there is a champion breeder in Moscow with an unfortunate problem. She has three Borzoi she shows, two of the same age. Both have consistently kicked ass in the Russian and European dog circuits; won their Champion titles early and easily. One, however, is just slightly better than the other, which means it is consistently ranked #2. Which is unfair for the dog and its charms, that its' brother is just a little bit more special. And moreover, the two dogs don't get along, in a bad way. So the second dog is for sale. But buying an expensive, exotic dog from another country, particularly a semi-lawless one like Russia, is tricky.

And so there I am, going off to the Ukraine. With a possible stop in Russia. Would I be going to Moscow? Would I be willing to evaluate, deliver money for, and ship off the dog? For D... yes.

9:21am: We Start With Pictures