Page 12 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 5

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 1 2

SPECIAL FEATURE

Desert Run after Fahel Shi’Rayân, Chamisa Schuru-esch-Schams and Dalal Shi’Rayân,
by Gisela Cook-Schmidt, 1995, enamel with cloisonné. 20” x 6” (51 cm x 15.25 cm).

Gisela Cook-Schmidt was a dear friend of Her kennel name (Reckendahl) she had
mine for over 30 years. I first met her in "inherited" from her father, who was, among
the mid-1970’s in California when I other things, a breeder of Great Danes in
acquired a young black grizzle Saluki from Germany in the years surrounding WWI. He
her named Reckendahl’s Durak, and later was also a breeder of fancy pigeons, and

his fawn grizzle sister, Reckendahl’s Gisela often spoke with great fondness and
Dawnstar. Gisela had acquired her own admiration for her father and the time they
Salukis originally from Theo Knussert of spent together in her childhood working
the famed el Saraje foundation kennel with the dogs and birds and discussing their
in Germany. breeding and so on, to which she attributed

the beginnings of her own fascinations and
She was of course German, born in the passions for animals.
historic city of Cologne. She had moved
with her three teenage children to the During our many years of friendship I always
U.S. after her husband was tragically had the pleasure of witnessing the creation
killed in an automobile accident. She spoke of many of Gisela’s pieces of artwork:
no English then and taught herself through wonderful jewelry, plates, dishes, bowls,

immersion and intensely studying a vases, art panels and pieces of various types
dictionary whenever she could, after re- and configurations. Many of her themes
marrying here in the United States and drew from her passion for dogs and she also
living for a few years in the Ozark did some pieces for various hound events
Mountains of Arkansas. and hound enthusiasts themselves over the
years.