It’s hard to imagine Israel’s Caesarea beach looking any more beautiful than on the day that a team of Borzoi showed up with Wonder Woman.

As an aside, who remembers when “team competition” could be seen at a dog show? For those just joining the dog world, brace competition is when one handler exhibits two dogs together who not only conform to the standard, but also look and move as one. In team competition (which is almost never seen anymore), four dogs of the same breed must also be similar in appearance and perform in unison. While AKC rules state that the dogs may be presented by a maximum of four handlers, we’ve only ever seen one handler on a team, and coincidentally, the last time we saw a team compete at a dog show, they were Borzoi.***

The November 2020 issue of Vanity Fair includes a feature on Israeli actress, model, and producer, Gal Gadot (American film audiences saw her in 2009’s “Fast & Furious,” and as Wonder Woman in 2017),  and one of the photos has her appear on Caesarea beach with four Israeli born Borzoi: “Nusha” Bereginya Severnaya, “Nika” Bistraya Neva & “Blistay” Blistay Russkiy Ampir (a year old), and Solovyev Elan (their aunt).

The former law student, Israeli army officer, and one-time “Miss Israel” is the second Israeli to grace the cover of the magazine, (the first was Natalie Portman), and she’s a dog owner, though “Lola” is considerably smaller and less certain of her pedigree than the sighthounds on the beach with Godot.

You can follow the breeders of these Borzoi on their Facebook page where you can see a few more photos from the beach shoot, as well as some stunning visuals of the breed.  You can also see a brief video on Godot’s Instagram page that includes clips of her with the Borzoi.

**The Borzoi Club of America and the Borzoi Club UK both prefer “Borzoi” as the plural form of the breed.

Image: Photo of Godot in a dress by Proenza Schouler was shot by Dudi Hasson