세계 희귀 베트남 푸꾸억 강아지 Yours for £40,000 - the rarest (and naughtiest) puppies in the world which a British pet lover has brought from a remote Vietnamese island(VIDEO)
Yours for £40,000 - the rarest (and naughtiest) puppies in the world which a British pet lover has brought from a remote Vietnamese island
- Extremely rare Phu Quoc puppies originate on a remote Vietnamese island
- Briton Catherine Lane brought the puppies' parents to the UK last year
- She's the first person in Europe to own them and to breed a litter of them
- Because of the purity of the breed, they're worth a stunning £10,000 each
- 세계적으로 희귀 품종인 베트남의 푸꾸억(Phu Quoc) 강아지
- 영국의 캐서린 래인은 작년에 그들의 부모를 데려와 이번에 귀여운 4마리의
- 새끼들을 얻었다.
- 그녀는 이 희귀 품종을 유럽에 최초로 들여왔다.
- 순혈통이라 마리당 만파운드(한화 약 18백만원)을 홋가한다.
by Ki Chul Hwang
Conpaper Editor Distributor
황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터
A puppy is teetering precariously on the arm of a sofa and all hell has broken loose. ‘Get it down!’ screeches a voice from across the room. ‘It’s going to fall off and kill itself! Get it DOWN!’
Oblivious to the chaos, the puppy nudges its seal-like nose over the edge and peers curiously at the floor below. Before it can move its paws any closer to the drop — which might be a 200ft abyss, the way its owner is carrying on — a pair of arms scoop it up and pile the squirming bundle into its basket.
‘Never do that again!’ scolds the voice. ‘You could have hurt yourself!’ She may sound hysterical, but Catherine Lane has more reason than most to be concerned for her puppy.
Puppies, actually. For clambering around beneath our feet in this living room in Brighton are three more jet-black furballs, chewing everything in sight. Shoelaces, phone cables, curtains: nothing is safe.
These aren’t just any old puppies. They are an extremely rare breed called the Phu Quoc ridgeback (pronounced ‘foo kwok’)
Feathers are pouring out of an expensive-looking cushion, while a page of my notebook is being torn to shreds. They behave like ordinary seven-week-old dogs, yelping adorably and running rings around anyone who gets in their way.
But these aren’t just any old puppies. They are an extremely rare breed called the Phu Quoc ridgeback (pronounced ‘foo kwok’).
Originating on a remote Vietnamese island, there are only 800 of them registered worldwide.
Having brought the puppies’ parents — Moon and Sirius — to Britain last year, Catherine became the first person in Europe to own the dogs. She’s also the first to breed a litter, and because of the rarity and purity of their breed, they’re worth an astonishing £10,000 each.
This week, their story made international headlines, with interest from as far away as the Seychelles, Kuwait and New Zealand.
Catherine has received hundreds of enquiries, with offers of bribes, gifts and thousands more than the asking price (one bid hit £15,000). So how can a dog that weighs less than a bag of sugar be worth more than a family car?
Catherine Lane, with one of her puppies - the first litter to have been bred in Europe
‘I know it sounds like a lot,’ says Catherine, 42, who is the managing director of a digital media company. ‘To some people, it’s a stupid amount to spend on a dog.
‘But these dogs have a longer lifespan than most — they’ll be your companions for 15 years. There are people who spend £10,000 on an Apple Watch or a handbag or an expensive bike. You wouldn’t have any of those for 15 years.’
But Labrador puppies, one of the most sought-after breeds, cost around £350. What makes hers so special?
‘Phu Quoc ridgebacks are amazing,’ Catherine coos. ‘They can climb trees, swim and run faster than other dogs. They have webbed feet, black-spotted tongues and a distinctive ridge of fur along their backs, like a mohawk.’
Their unusual sharp claws are thought to have come from their days as pack hunters; while the webbed feet — entirely unique in a dog breed — evolved thousands of years ago when the dogs would swim to catch fish in food-scarce Asia.
Not only that, but the dogs’ rarity — a decade ago they were close to extinction — makes them uniquely pure, as they have never been cross-bred or exposed to dogs outside their gene pool. With Britain overrun by labradoodles and cockapoos, such a pedigree is almost impossible to find.
The saga started in December 2013, when Catherine visited Vietnam on holiday over Christmas and New Year.
On Phu Quoc, a palm-fringed island in the Gulf of Thailand, she came across this breed of tall, muscular dogs with pert ears, tapered tails and glossy, ridged coats.
The adults resemble the graceful dogs owned by the Ancient Egyptians and depicted in hieroglyphs. In Vietnam, they are kept as pets and used to hunt and fish.
‘I was looking into getting a dog in Britain, but I was being offered crossbreeds with numeric names like F1B and F2B,’ Catherine says.
‘I just thought, no. I want a true dog. I want one that is clever, bright and self-sufficient; that isn’t so pampered it needs a hairdresser of its own.’
She returned home and immediately booked flights back to Vietnam.
‘Initially, I just wanted one,’ she says. ‘But then I decided it would be nice for it to have a companion. And then I thought: wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a litter?’
The dogs’ rarity — a decade ago they were close to extinction — makes them uniquely pure, as they have never been cross-bred or exposed to dogs outside their gene pool
Last year, Catherine travelled repeatedly to Ho Chi Minh City where she stayed for three weeks at a time to pursue her quest.
She found Moon first (whose name means Black Protector in Vietnamese), then came Sirius (the Dog Star constellation) — a show-dog that cost considerably more than his mate, though she won’t say how much.
‘It was less than £10,000, but with all the plane fares, vaccinations, licences and so on, the total for the two was probably more. I don’t want to think about it. I haven’t added it up.’
The process to import a dog to the UK — a quarantine period plus documentation and health checks — takes around seven months, so Catherine paid a Vietnamese family to look after Moon and Sirius while she waited.
She flew out special food (£15.99 bags of country game and Scottish salmon biscuits) to ensure her dogs were getting the best care.
Eventually, in August last year, the dogs arrived by plane in Paris, where Catherine collected them and drove them home. ‘It was quite a drastic change: from the white sands of Vietnam to the rocky beaches of Brighton,’ she laughs.
The process to import a dog to the UK — a quarantine period plus documentation and health checks — takes around seven months, so Catherine paid a Vietnamese family to look after Moon and Sirius while she waited
‘They were very nervous to begin with . . .’ She halts abruptly, her eyes darting wildly round the room.
‘Where is the fourth puppy?’ she squeals. ‘I can’t see it! Where is it? Nobody move! It’s disappeared!’
It hasn’t. It’s crawled under the table where it’s merrily chewing on a piece of fluff. It emerges, vaguely startled, and Catherine leaps on it.
Her breathing slowly returning to normal, she explains that while she hoped Moon and Sirius, both two years old, would breed, the litter wasn’t entirely planned.
‘Sirius showed no interest in her [Moon] at first,’ she says. ‘But they were still young, so I wasn’t in a hurry.
‘Then, one day, I brought them to the office with me. I left the room and when I came back they were at it.’
For the next nine weeks, Catherine oversaw Moon’s food, water and sleep with military precision. ‘I bought a book about dog pregnancy, spoke to the vet and made sure I knew what to do in every eventuality.’
On August 18, four beautiful puppies arrived — three girls and a boy.
They kept Catherine up all hours of the night at first, but eventually they became more docile. She cares for them with help from her father, Anthony, who is dutifully on hand with a mop and bucket.
‘It’s a full-time job, this,’ he smiles, somewhat wearily, darting after a bounding black blob that is trying to escape into the kitchen.
For peace of mind — and to find potential owners — Catherine set up a website about the puppies, with a webcam streaming live footage of them 24/7. Offers flooded in.
‘I had a series of criteria in my head for choosing the owners,’ she says. ‘I wanted to know that they had the right kind of home environment, had a lot of time for the dog and had a reason for wanting this breed.’
All four have already been paired with extremely well-vetted homes. One is being flown to a ranch owner in Dallas, Texas, another is going to a couple in Brighton, and two pups will live with a young family in Hampshire.
Catherine won’t give any more details, for fear the new owners will be besieged by pleas from dog-lovers who missed out. But, she says, all were happy to pay the price for their pets.
As she speaks, a yapping puppy wriggles its way under my knees, ripping tiny paw-holes in my tights and attempting to leap on to my lap.
They’re extremely friendly creatures: inquisitive and fearless.
On Phu Quoc, a palm-fringed island in the Gulf of Thailand, she came across this breed of tall, muscular dogs with pert ears, tapered tails and glossy, ridged coats
On August 18, four beautiful puppies arrived — three girls and a boy. They kept Catherine up all hours of the night at first, but eventually they became more docile
Does Catherine worry about their safety, now the world knows they’re worth £10,000 a pup? ‘To be honest, not really,’ she says, breezily.
‘The doors and windows are kept shut, their parents are always on alert — and anyway, you wouldn’t be able to walk outside with one of these under your arm, would you?
‘It’s such a rare dog that a thief couldn’t put it on Gumtree [a website advertising goods and services].’
It’s just two weeks until the first owner collects their new pet, and the others will leave shortly afterwards. Catherine admits she will be devastated: ‘It will be very hard, but I feel more for Moon,’ she says.
‘She’s a very intuitive dog and she’ll find it difficult to be separated from her babies. I am so tempted to keep one — but two dogs is enough.’
It’s just two weeks until the first owner collects their new pet, and the others will leave shortly afterwards. Catherine admits she will be devastated
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