When Iman was born it made my soul bloom. Her brothers preceeded her. But I knew that her dam held another whelp inside her. I made Jana get up and go outside to walk around…thinking it might prompt her to bring forth another puppy. She started and I rushed her back to her whelping box. The moment she stood in her box a female puppy flew out! and I caught her in my hands. I looked at her…she was like a praying mantis…all bone, angular….and I said to myself ‘but this is Iman’. Al hamdullilah. The Somali woman Iman is my ideal of human feminine beauty. I knew that the gift I held in my hands would be like Iman. An ideal of feminine beauty in the form of an Azawakh. A taidit. I was not disappointed, al hamdullilah. Iman founded a dynasty. Her sons and daughters are the backbone of my breeding program. I lost Iman to the fire. Mash’Allah. She was ten years old when she left. I can never recover from this loss. There are no memories of her. She is still part of me. Al hamdullilah.
