Les montagnes serbes sarplaninac

LES MONTAGNES SERBES

OD SRPSKIH PLANINA

IN SWITZERLAND, JANUARY 1993

That year we traveled a great deal. We took our first trip with our friend Leon. Actually, we made him company as he drove his bitch, Les Montagnes serbes Odra , for mating. The male we selected for her was Grundy of Miv-a dog of old lineage of Bojovic.

Grundy belonged to Mrs Elsbeth Jennings, who lived in the German part of Switzerland, and who married an Englishman. That gentleman owned a large farm where he trained harness race horses. Their living room was adorned with framed photos of horses that won at various races, while the study was reserved for Grundy's trophies.

Mrs. Jennings had other dog breeds before she acquired Sarplaninac, which she trained as rescue dogs. I believe that they were of Bern breed. Although she spoke French poorly, we were still able to communicate reasonably well. She received us simply but warmly. Grundy became immediately interested in Odra and they bred the next morning, just as we planned.

We used the remaining free time to visit Zurich on a cold and dark morning, with Odra in tough. The main street was lined with banks and luxurious stores, jewellery and other stores; we walked around the lake and dined together. We admired some brands of automobiles, we have not as yet seen in Belgium.

That evening, Mrs. Jennings invited us for supper. As I recall, she prepared for us melted cheese, and on the following day she prepared for us another Swiss specialty, rösti. In those days, Mrs. Jennings had one more dog that came from Croatia, a young bitch, Kincsem.

One year later, Grundy and Kincsem had a litter whose names begun with "E". Since she did not manage to sell all of the dogs to "good homes", Mrs Jennings kept two males, Eclipse and Ergela. Somewhat later, she also took back one dog from the same litter, "Evo me".

Toward the end of our third day visit to Jennings', I managed to arrange to visit my family, one nephew with her wife and son. They lived near Lausanne, in St. Sulpice. We met in Häglingen, the residence village of Jennings, and my relative, Nebojsa, invited us for dinner in a local inn. It was very pleasant and we completed the amiable gathering by taking souvenir photos.

After two months, Odra had a beautiful, large litter. One of the pups went to Czechoslovakia, one to Germany, and the rest to Luxembourg and Belgium. I still remember gorgeous Rasa from Germany and the powerful Ranko.