MEETING

PHOTO SHOOTS

Our photographer, Vanessa Grossemy who already had the opportunity to photograph some of my dogs, has her requirements, so I had to find a place that would give her the opportunity to have the sky as background, to enable her to change the landscape, for instance if she would decide to publish a calendar, that the background would not be the same for all pictures. For me it was important that this place was in the vicinity, in order to go by foot, that at the same time it would be a little walk and that we would not lose too much time. Not far from my house I saw a meadow on which there were no cows. It belonged to the local farmer that I know well and the sight from this meadow was beautiful. You could see all around, only the grass was just a little too high.... My acquaintance, the farmer, allowed me to bring along a number of dogs. Unfortunately, Vanessa was in a hurry to leave for a tour in France and that makes that in the three hours that she could spend with us, she could not photograph all the dogs, only those who arrived among the first.
Little line consisted of the following dogs: Bayka, Cakana called Anuska, Cicavesna, Duska, Gara, Hajdi, Decko, Dragas, Duci, Dusko, Falco, Furko, Garo, Goranac called Zoran, Griska, Higor and Hooker. Unfortunately the owners of Duci and Falco have lost patience and that’s why Vanessa did not have the opportunity to photograph them. It is true that a photo shoot with Vanessa takes a long time because she looks for the best result, the head should be turned according to the position of the sun, the leash should not be visible, or it has to be straightened, so that it does not lay on the fur of the dog, so that it can easily be erased in Photoshop, if she photographs two dogs together they must be on the same line, if not, one will be blur ...
The last dog Vanessa made a picture of was on my property and it was Hodessa. As Hodessa was “on heat” we did not want to excite every male dog. The other dogs were taken pictures of by Huguette and I, only Duci left without one single picture, which I enormously regret.
I also have to mention that Goranac and Hode have only been photographed by Vanessa, so this time there will be no pictures of them, we’ll have to wait for the pictures taken by Vanessa.
I will get the pictures taken by Vanessa within one month and they will be put on my site and probably also on the Net in the form of an album. br

LUNCH

After 1 am, we gathered around a few starters, prepared by Nicole and me. Salads "urnebes”, “Russian” “sopska”, “ajvar”, “prebranac”, taboulet ... have been very successful. Everyone wanted the recipe of “urnebes” salad. Then there was a huge amount of spaghetti, thinking back we have concluded that we could have done without. The last large bowl of spaghetti has been divided in portions for our dogs and judging by my dogs, they appreciated the change of menu!
At the end my guests have tasted the desserts “suva pita” and a kind of cream like Tiramisu. And again there were requests for the recipe of “suva pita” and Vladimir was suspicious, for real or to tease me, hat the pita came from a Turkish shop.
At the table at which I briefly sat, the atmosphere was very cheerful, and how it would not be, because there were Jimmy and Mr. Henry Kusza! Always cheerful and ready to joke! At the entrance of the garage, where the tables with the food and the drinks were, Goranac called “Zoran” was laying behind his owners. He was quietly laying, not very interested, despite a lot of people were passing a few centimetres from his nose and stepping over him. There were still some favourites under the table, I spotted Eros, Grivna, Griska ... At the next table two long time friends, Andre and Patrick were sitting, chatting around a glass of brown Belgian beer. My friend Sinisa amused with loud voice Olga and her family. Olga knows some Serbian words she learned from her father or from staying as a young girl at the Adriatic coast. Huguette and her sister Annette were the supervisors of the organization. Huguette has even provided some souvenirs !

A big thank you, to everybody who has helped me to make his day successful and to remain a pleasant memory. I'll try to forget nobody. For the transport of the tables and chairs, assembling and disassembling the cages I have to thank Joseph, the owner of Ecka and Zirka and my friend from Belgrade, Vladimir who owns the Sarplaninac Dingo. Then the Montenegrin Valjko who has Sarplaninci in the town of Berane and my friend for many years, Sinisa from the town of Drnis, who even knew my dogs from the first generations, perhaps even Zoe, in any case Arap and Lola. He took them from time to time for a walk and this year he even kept my two "girls" while I was in Belgrade. Another major victim was Nicole, who once had the dog Yskra. Not only she made some starters, she lent me a large quantity of china, she helped me to put all the tables and chairs, but she has also done the dishes after the meal, which allowed me to stay with my guests. Another dear person who helped everywhere was my Christel, the owner of Dingo and wife of Vladimir. Not only was she welcoming the guests by using her knowledge of many languages, but she also took care of the presentation of the starters and she also started to do the dishes, together with Nicole.
Huguette was the "leader" for many things around the organization, she brought me cutlery and tents, with Annette she set the tables, she entertained the guests, she was the photographer, she provided the dogs with water ... and, once more, she made me cry when she gave me these beautiful pages of the "Golden Book".
Here is what she wrote to me.