On 17th April 2003, a litter was born (Ch Caredig Kava of Sade ex Santir Zara) at
the long-established Santir kennel in England. Our friend, Mr Hradil, had asked
me a few weeks before if I could find him a puppy from a quality litter, so I
was delighted when an English friend offered to ask the breeder, John Bosanquet,
if he would consider exporting a puppy to the Czech Republic. He agreed, and
so it was that we found ourselves on a plane to England! At the Santir kennel
we met three nice wolfhounds and a pack of sweet, eight week old, brindle puppies.
John was keeping one of the four remaining males, and from the other three
we chose a wonderful red brindle, and named him Vincent. A few weeks later we were again at a Prague airport, waiting for Vincent. Finally, we were able to open the travel box and release the little puppy. He may have felt unwell during the flight but he recovered enough to steal our hearts in minutes. This was the start of our friendship . . . Mr Hradil isn't a show fan and doesn't see the point of a dog having a show career, but he was kind enough to let us to have Vincent once or twice a month to take part in shows or lure coursing. Although Vincent loved lure coursing he was not keen on shows, but even so he was always happy being with us and clearly loved us as much as we loved him. 2006 was very successful for Vincent. He won CAC under Mr Finney (Gulliagh), finished his Czech and Slovenian championships and successfully mated two females, Vianho Dama and Crazy Casey Roan Inish. Vincent was a wonderful boy, not only because of his temperament, but he was also a strong, typical male who passed these qualities on to his offspring. It was impossible not to love this dog. His heart was open to all new friends, he always had special kisses for his family and always he would do his utmost to be the first and only one for a cuddle . . . we didn't know that this was because he had so little time . . . About two weeks before his death he began limping, but because this followed a fight with Medy we thought little of it. When there was no improvement after a week, he was x-rayed with a terrible result: a tumour of the humerus. He was given antibiotics and painkillers, and we hoped that the next x-ray would show a miracle . . . but his cancer was so aggressive that only a week later it broke his leg, and metastases were found elsewhere in his body. There was only one thing that could be done for him - to let him go. Vinnie, we miss you tooo much . . . |
Santir Vincent 17.04.03 ~ 12.05.07 |
