Anya Krosnick
Anya Krosnick is a black tri-color Australian Shepherd dog, and is widely considered to have the most adorable butt of any creature that has ever walked this gorgeous green earth. While her name – shared with her Mom’s middle one – originates from a beloved Polish ancestor, she also answers to an array of other titles: An and Ani; Bun, Bundle, Honeybun, and Bundlest; and, perhaps most outrageously, Doglet, Bundle-Wundle, Animalest, Missy, and Bun-Bun.
Born in Utah, Anya was rescued from a puppy mill (thankfully now closed!!) and flew as a very young Bun to the East Coast, where she met her Mom at LaGuardia Airport in February 2016. Since puppyhood, Anya has traveled extensively, first on tours with Trio Cleonice and now with the Cassatt Quartet, as well as for her Mom’s recitals and teaching. (Only very occasionally are her travels recreational: she, like Mama, is a homebody). Her favorite places to visit are Chilmark, Massachusetts and Blue Hill, Maine. She previously resided in Massachusetts and Connecticut before settling on a few acres of woods far north of New York City, where she sniffs peonies and multicolored daffodils, explores the wilderness, and bird-watches daily. Anya has been known to chase deer, other dogs, Canada geese, and people; and to run in terror from frogs and field mice. Her best dog friends are Fredo, Matzo, and Jackson, her ex-stepbrother, whose home she cheekily refers to as her “city flat.”
As a herding dog, Anya is both highly intelligent and acutely sensitive to change of all kinds: the sound of the printer starting or a Ziploc bag opening cause her instantly to run (away in fear and toward in excitement, respectively). While she is fluent in an array of canine showmanship – including the standard sit, heel, lie down, paw, and other paw – her cutest and most positively received tricks are little hug (resting her head on Mom’s shoulder) and big hug (sitting on her hind legs and reaching both front arms around Mom’s shoulders and neck). Anya is a devoted and incredibly tender friend to those who know her well, but nervous and often unfriendly with new people; the marvelous exception is in cello lessons and chamber music rehearsals – during which she can often be found lying at her Mom’s feet, happily soaking up warm, rich bass notes from the cello (and viola, her other favorite instrument), and waiting for the group to take a snack break.
She lives a rough-and-tumble lifestyle, and as such has had two successful ACL repairs on her back legs (a big thank you to Anya’s amazing orthopedic vet surgeon, Dr. Raske, and the staff of the Hospital for Veterinary Surgery!). Her Mom once came home from a concert trip to find her missing one tooth; though Anya was staying with her grandparents Dinah and Joel at the time, conjecture suggests that Anya’s dental duress likely took root with her own instigation of an especially feverish match of tug of war with her cousins. Her sense of humor is spectacular in the truest sense of the word; a recent favorite standup routine involves leaning against her Grandma’s legs and throwing her paws in the air – a big, missing-toothed grin on her face – to buy a couple of extra minutes with her favorite matriarch.
Anya’s favorite foods are salmon nigiri and sashimi, the crunchy tips of fine baguettes, rare filet mignon, and spaghetti aglio e olio, though she is adventuresome and will, she indicates, try anything once. (The exception was a raw oyster, whose texture was evidently an insult.) She is fond of snuggling next to her Mom to read a book in the mornings; of being cooed to in dulcet tones while doing restorative yoga; and of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonin Dvořák, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Elliott Carter. Anya likes the beach but not swimming; people but not noise; and running around in the tallest grass she can find but not tick checks. For chewing purposes, she prefers enormously large sticks, tiny stuffed animals, her Grandpa’s sneakers, and fine fish-flavored dog treats. She is a registered Democrat.
