Meet Our Founder

Meet Our Founder

His name is Diego. We got him shortly after we returned from Mexico, thus the name. And he also resembles Diego Rivera quite a bit as seen from the rear. His first appearance in our lives was when we returned to our home in the mountains of south eastern British Columbia and went to investigate an advert for a Shih Tzu puppy for sale in our neighbourhood. 

We drove up to their house, the front door opened, and a ball of fur tumbled out into the snow.  We fell in love. He was the last puppy in the litter still for sale, his low status probably due to the fact that he's cockeyed and sees things up close none too well. And, perhaps also because he's mellow, at least compared to the other pooch in our home, a half-Shih Tzu, half-Bichon who's smart enough to run rings around him and lead him by the nose and is probably also capable of rewiring a lamp if need be. Her name is Jasmine.

Anyway, Diego was six weeks old, gentle, accommodating and confused, easy to love.  His original name was Brutus. The name of an assassin, no matter how well meaning to do in Caesar, was hardly appropriate for so small and gentle a creature. But as time passed it was also evident that Diego could have been a Butch or a Spike or a Brutus, given his delight in going after big dogs, motorcycles, bicycles and large trucks, and the occasional booted foot.

Like all Shih Tzu's, his finest talent is for cuddling, especially while one is trying to do Yoga. He also has a well-attuned instinct for finding the perfect angle in one of our bodies in which to nestle while we are sleeping.

And so, ten years later and after subsequent moves to Singapore, Montreal, Nova Scotia and Ras Al Khaimah, he is well travelled and still sweet, still loved and loving, and still occasionally confused. Our Founder!