Adley Of Vietnam

Everywhere we turn, it’s Adley – our dog that Emily brought to the relationship. All around Saigon, people have dogs who are not only Adley’s size and body type, but have the same face with the cute round eyes.

“Oh, my God, that dog looks like Adley!” followed by, “That one is totally Adley!” and “Those are the same eyes as Adley….I miss Adley!!!”

Until now, when Emily says a dog looks like Adley and she misses him, it has only meant the dog is a cute, small dog. Half the time, they actually look nothing like Adley except for their relative size.

We had a genuine moment of missing Conlan – the dog I brought to the relationship – in Bali when we saw a few other dogs that resembled him. Of course, Conlan is from Bali and that was fully expected. And yes, for those of you who have been following the blog, I named the dog after my friend – there’s a story there and the name means “dog king” in Celtic.

Emily met Adley at an animal shelter. He was a five month old puppy and she couldn’t resist his little face.

“I don’t know how anyone could have given him up!” Emily often says, “Look at that face! He’s regal!”

As often happens with pound puppies, the animal shelter people didn’t know his exact breed and the vet couldn’t quite identify it. Long-haired dachshund mix became his official label. Adley has the long body and floppy ears of a dachshund, but much longer, skinnier legs. Luckily, he lacks a dachshund’s propensity to dig. Instead, he has what we assumed was his own propensity to cuddle.

Most domesticated dogs were bred with a purpose. As the name suggests, German shepherds were shepherds and are also great at protecting people. Dobermans are guard dogs. Spaniels are all hunting dogs. Even uber-friendly golden retrievers, were meant for retrieving shot fowl.

It’s difficult to imagine what possible practical use Adley’s lineage was for other than cuddling and unconditional love. Adley has no defenses. He relies on being taken care of and protected. He would never defend a home because he would kiss and love whoever broke in. In fact, he would be excited that they dropped in.

Adley isn’t that smart. He can’t be trusted in parking lots or traffic – he has no idea what he’s doing.

His raison d’être is to love and be loved – and maybe play and have a snack. He would be happy to be held and cuddled 24 hours a day. In short, he’s a baby – and Emily, and almost every woman who meets him treats him as such.

Of all the countries we’ve visited, this is the last one we would expect to see a dog like Adley. After all, they eat dog in this country – who would expect many dogs as pets?

Yet there they are, with cute little collars and leashes, perched in their owners’ arms or walking around in front of the shops and homes they live in, getting affection and generally being cute. The only substantive difference between these dogs and Adley is that these dogs don’t run into traffic.

We had never considered that Adley might be Vietnamese. The whole idea is shocking.

So, we began asking questions as best we could and people tried to give answers as best they could. I have filled in the gaps with my own interpretations.

Rumor has it that the Adley-dogs (as they will henceforth be called) link back hundreds of years to the royal court of Cochinchine (the former name of the southernmost Vietnamese kingdom) and later to the Vietnamese empire when the three former kingdoms were united under the Nguyen dynasty in 1802.

Adley-dogs were favorites among the wives of the emperors and courtesans alike. Old photos show ladies of the court in their long silk robes, sitting for portrait with cute, long-bodied, floppy-eared, pointed snout dogs cuddling on their laps. Work by late 19th century French photographer Jacques Daumien shows litters of Adley-dogs cuddled together body to body on Chinese rugs in the background of an 1893 portrait of the royal family.

Although it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint our Adley’s exact lineage, we believe he is likely the descendent of Chuy, the favorite lap dog of Emperor Bao Dai’s first wife and mother of his children, Nam Phuong. Chuy and Nam Phuong were inseparable and she was known to sleep with him at night, long after the Emperor took interest in his three other wives – all younger than Nam Phuong.

It has been said that in order to ensure she would never be without her beloved Chuy, Nam Phuong had Chuy mated with a female Adley dog who was a favorite of the mother of then military commander Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Naturally, there were more than enough puppies in the litter to be split among both women and eventually their families.

Thus, it appears that Xuyen, the cuddly pet of Nguyễn Văn Thiệu’s wife, Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, was probably Chuy’s granddaughter.

Sadly, 1975 was a bad time to the First Puppy of Vietnam. As the Viet Cong closed in on Saigon, Thieu fled to Taiwan with his family. Because she was firmly affixed to Madame Nguyen, shivering with fear and cuddled close to her mommy’s body, Xuyen made it to the top of the U.S. Embassy in time to be escape Saigon. Having not removed her head from Madame Nguyen’s armpit in more than a day, Xuyen also found herself aboard the U.S. C-118 that flew she, her family and her unborn puppies to Taiwan on August 24th, 1975.

From there, the story gets a little hazy, but it likely involves a stay in London, Massachusetts and eventually Orange County, California where one of Thieu’s sons later settled.

The line of puppies that had snuggled their way onto the chests and into the hearts of the Nguyen family were perhaps not the brightest or most street smart of their kind. Having been raised behind royal and government gates for more than 150 years, they had grown sheltered.

So it was that when a gardener made the mistake of leaving a sideyard gate open one day in 1999, one of the family dogs, Miffy, made her way out into the world while chasing a squirrel. By the time her vain attempts to catch the squirrel were over, she neither knew where she was nor how to get home. So, using the survival skills of her ancestors, she found the first little girl who walked by, ran up to her, looked cute and found herself in the arms of her next owner.

It’s not clear what happened from there, but we believe that Adley may have descended from Miffy and somehow he or his mother were passed along to a Los Angeles based family.

Needless to say, Adley’s lineage is as impressive as it is confusing.

The librarian who helped at Saigon’s main library, having seen a photo of Adley and being an ardent Adley-dog lover, said that Adley is most definitely Vietnamese. Based on photos we showed her both of Adley’s regal bearing and him curled up on the bed of his foster parents, Dan and Jill, the librarian felt certain that Adley linked back to Xuyen.

As I write this, Adley – a national treasure of Vietnam – is staying true to his lineage as he sleeps curled up between Dan and Jill. Adley likes to spend his days with them having his belly rubbed, laying across their laps, going on runs until he gets tired and lays down wherever he is. He also amuses himself by tossing squirrel toys in the air which he then tries to catch.

True royal breeding.

Adley’s Vietnamese Cousin

Real Adley Celebrating Hanukkah With Dan

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