Survival of the Fittest
Zanna giving Ryan kisses.
Zanna, our adopted Neapolitan Mastiff puppy, is turning two years old today. It was almost exactly a year ago that our good friends the Nicely’s had first approached us about taking her. Of course, it was extremely hard for them to give her up, but with their kids being younger and their house always full of other “smalls”, she just proved to be too much dog for them at that point in their life. They knew we were animal lovers and that we recently had to put our yellow lab down, and since our boys were older and could fend for themselves, they hoped we could provide a new home for her.
She was named Zanna because she’s the same breed of dog as Hagrid’s dog Fang in the Harry Potter movies. Since it’s an Italian breed, they chose that name because “Zanna” translates to “fang” or “tusk” in Italian, or so we’ve been told.
Honestly, we’ve always been lab people, so we didn’t know much about her particular breed before we got her.
Our dog, Zanna, walking with Carson the first day we met her.
For instance, when she gets excited, she makes this purring noise that is almost reptilian in nature, like something you’d here come from a velociraptor just before it ambushes you in the Jurassic Park gift shop.
We also learned that one of her hidden talents is that she can sing the Happy Birthday song.
Here’s a fun fact: Neapolitan Mastiffs prefer couches over their dog beds, and if we didn’t have an oversized sectional with chaise, there wouldn’t be any place left for me to sit when the family settles in to watch TV at night.
We have also learned that Zanna likes going bye-bye in the car, especially if it involves a trip to Tractor Supply or Home Depot (or any of the other stores up at Houghton Lake) where she knows she is going to get a treat at the check-out.
Finally, in the wake of the whole COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t have ever anticipated how well-suited her breed would be for this sort of crisis. It turns out that Neapolitan Mastiffs have been genetically engineered to be able to flourish in these shut-in conditions. Nature has endowed these dogs with the innate ability to shelter in place and socially distance themselves from people, physical activity, vacuums and just about anything else that could disrupt their regimented quarantine nap schedule. Below is a partial photographic journal (using screen grabs from her work-at-home Zoom meeting footage) documenting her past seven weeks spent in isolation.
