Chihuahua pals travel a long way to find a home

Zak and Azir have come a long way for two guys with really short legs.

The 10-pound, copper- and fawn-colored Chihuahuas began life with — some say — royal connections in the Middle East. Now, they’re living with a foster family in the East Valley, awaiting a permanent home in a desert 8,000 miles from the one they were born in.

“It’s a little bizarre. If you had told me six months ago I’d have two dogs from Saudi Arabia in my house, I wouldn’t have believed it,” says Sonny Garrett, the Mesa volunteer providing a temporary home for the pair.

Arizona Chihuahua Rescue learned about the dogs — then living in a shelter in Kuwait — when the group’s president received an e-mail from a woman in Wyoming. 

“I thought it was kind of a joke at first,” says Barbara Rabe. “But this woman had been over there and done some volunteering at the shelter and met the dogs personally. It was legitimate.”

The dogs, it turns out, were originally purchased in Saudi Arabia by a Scottish nanny working for, it’s rumored, a royal Saudi family. But the job involved a lot of travel, and for more than a year, the dogs were shuffled from caretaker to caretaker, sometimes living on a sun-baked rooftop with only tattered carpets for shade, other times housed in a closet-sized kennel in Riyadh, where they received minimal human contact. “Their food and water was changed, and their kennel was hosed down once a day with the dogs inside,” says Rabe. “They were really just horrible conditions.”

Eventually the pair wound up at a no-kill shelter in Kuwait. Protecting Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, tried to find Zak and Azir a home in the Middle East. When there were no takers, the group began appealing to rescue organizations abroad.

According to Rabe, Arizona Chihuahua Rescue was the only group to answer the call, working with PAWS to find a way for the dogs to come to the U.S. 

“They really can’t place dogs over there. They have a difficult time finding good homes,” she says.

And though Arizona has no shortage of Chihuahuas in need of rescue, Rabe says they couldn’t let two more dogs go homeless simply because they were half a world away.

“They’re just great, perfectly healthy little dogs,” she says.

PAWS raised almost $4,000 to fly Zak, Azir and three other dogs of varying breeds to the U.S. The canines traveled from Kuwait to Frankfurt, Germany, to Los Angeles by plane; then their chaperone rented a van and drove them to the parking lot of Cracker Barrel at Interstate 10 and Chandler Boulevard, where Rabe and Garrett met the exhausted animals. The other dogs were adopted, but Garrett took the Chihuahuas home.

“(Zak’s and Azir’s) personalities are just such that you would never know they’ve lived through what they have,” she says. “I’ve had other fosters who don’t know what people are, and they hide and cry and freak out. These guys aren’t like that at all. They’re just super, just full of unconditional love.”

She and Rabe say the dogs should be adopted together.

“They’re not related, but they believe they are. They’re very, very bonded to each other. Like brothers,” says Rabe.

The pair have received medical checkups and are now up for adoption.

Zak and Azir

There is a $315 adoption fee for Zak and Azir (combined). Fees for other Chihuahuas available from Arizona Chihuahua Rescue range from $150 to $250 per dog. Fees include shots, microchipping and spay/neuter surgery. Adoption applications are available online at www.azchihuahuarescue.org. You may e-mail the completed form to rescue@azchihuahuarescue.org, or send it via postal mail to P.O. Box 52713, Mesa, AZ 85208. Information: (480) 844-2447

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

They may not travel nearly as far as Zak and Azir, but two Chihuahuas embark on their own journey in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” a new live-action Disney comedy starring the voices of George Lopez, Drew Barrymore, Andy Garcia, Placido Domingo, Cheech Marin and Paul Rodriguez. In the movie, Chloe, a pampered Chihuahua from Beverly Hills, gets lost in Mexico, and Papi, her wisecracking suitor, goes looking for her. The movie opens in theaters nationwide Friday, Oct. 3. For information, visit www.disney.com/chihuahua.