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The Runner (Manfred Mann)

Through the Night, through the Dawn,
Behind you, another Runner is born...
And you will run your time,
A Shooting Star across the sky...
and you will surely cross the line.
PASS ON THE FLAME!

This article is a tribute to CnCh Calle Del Fantasia of Rokaro FCh. CD, CGC, JC, all placements and most points for ASFA Championship, in the ribbons at the International Invitational, our flame red shooting star, passed from us under bitter circumstances far too soon. She had just achieved a second Triathalon win for our kennel in early September, the first being our championSaluki, Zahir's Sahara Sand two years before.

Her start in life was a result of the strangest circumstances. Her dam was AmCh Calle Del Image CD ("Pepper"), foundation bitch at Calle Del in Pueblo West, CO. Some of their pedigree derived from Kishniga Northern Lights, and some of ours from his brother, Night Rider, and his sister, Nadia. When my A litter was born (MBISS CnAm Ch P O S H Echovesna's Islaev x CnAmCh Kishniga Harvester Tuppence), it was suggested I write to this distant kennel to inform them of our puppies. In that letter, I mentioned that we were taking care of a very special Borzoi, who had just completed his Canadian Championship, Kishnig's Lin Coln. He had been born in New York State, sired by Specialty Winner Ch Kishniga's Rasputin, sold in Canada to a high government official as a present for his lady friend, and then, when he could not be kept, sent to us to continue the show career that the Kishniga partners had hoped for him. Barbara Curtis invited us to send him to her by air, to use him as a stud dog, with the promise of showing him in the United States. He sired an excellent litter of varied colours, and did indeed finish his championship and was in top ten standings at one point. These were his only offspring. Note the Colorado Xmas bush.

Fanta was thus great-granddaughter of the famous Ch Kishniga's Desert Song, who for a long time held the top points any dog any breed benchmark in Canada. The equally famous Dalgarth was her great grand-uncle. Her paternal granddam was Birchwood's Tsarina Jaffa, and in our observations of coursing potential, Borzoi with Birchwood elements have a better than average chance of lure interest. Her sire's pedigree included Ch Majenkir Artizan, and Cresset on the dam's side. She was an irish marked mahogany sable, recessive for agouti, with the reverse face mask. She had two agouti sisters, mahogany red siblings, and a tri brother. She was air shipped to Canada with her agouti sister Fawn, as stud service puppies back. Her sire remained at Calle Del and had a long and happy life as a valued show dog and companion. Her dam lived a full life and lived almost to twelve. Her sister Fawn went to Nanaimo BC, and unfortunately died young of cardio- myopathy of unknown origin. Her white sister, Lily, was a field champion with U.S. majors and lived at Calle Del. Her siblings Fame and Max have also passed on.

Readers who perused the article A-Luring published two issues ago in BI will know that I have some concerns about injuries from coursing. Fanta was allowed to grow up happily with our usual training. She enjoyed her sister's company for a few months until she went west, and was trained to work on a slack lead, and do all obedience routines without stress on automatic sits.

How does one identify a triathalon Borzoi? If there was one feature of Fanta, it was great interest in people. She loved to approach people, jump up on them, (from the back if she was deterred from jumping on front). She was friendly to a fault, and very easy to train for show. Irish marked reds were not that common, and she required a little more showing that some of the other colours to complete her championship, received in July, 1993. She was deliberately not taken lurecoursing, for fear of injuries. She had received a nasty bite from a kennel mate, a consequence of her great playfulness and interest in jumping on other dogs to play, as well as people. I felt it best to establish her championship in the ring first. For all we knew, she might have been playful on the field, and interfered with the other coursing dogs.

As soon as phase one was complete, she was taken to see a lure event. I was bowled over off a picnic table and down a hill by her frenzied interest. She was so keen that with a minimum of practice, she was tested, coursed clean, and never looked back. At her first weekend out, she came within a point of the famous George, up in Canada to show his considerable abilities. She was extremely reliable on the field, like her sister in Colorado. She had a sister who interfered, Fame and Glory, who was tried, and was not suited to the sport. In an event at the Munro area, she received a severe impact, rolled five times, came up at a run, in first, and got her ASFA placements that weekend. However, she was never carefree after that. She always ran a little cautiously. She never was hurt again, but her intelligent approach depressed her scores. She did not cheat much, but again, with the triathalon intelligence, tried to memorize the course, and naturally was tricked a bit when it was reversed. She was an absolute joy to take to events. She never barked, fought, interfered. If the lure was stopped, she would come in on a hand signal. While others like our well-known Obi Orbit would thrash at the start, Fanta was so demure and well-behaved she would just tremble with emotion, and then run her best. She took a while to finish, as we ran Stevie (Wind'n Satin Nite Stalker) for a while in Ontario, and he was just that much better than she that she would get NBQ to his 4th. To the right with ASFA trophies & Group III.

She took time off for puppies, and produced a lovely litter, born on Mother's Day, May 8th, 1994. This event took a lot out of her. She went into uterine inertia and had to have a c-section at the University of Guelph Veterinary College. They saved her and six more puppies. Nine of the litter lived to adulthood. Sire was my first Borzoi, CnCh Wania's Valentino (Xavier), who again had an interesting pedigree. Sire was Ch. Ridgeside Sun God (at Sirhan Kennel), dam Night Rider's sister, Kishniga's Nadia. The Kishniga connection was right, and both sire and dam had Majenkir Gyrfalcon in their pedigree as well. The litter, for those interested in colour inheritance, were all mahogany and white, except for one tri male. Fifty per cent had the dam's irish markings, fifty per cent the sire's white with mahogany spots markings. Fanta was an excellent mother in spite of the surgery, but contracted mastitis. This may have somewhat weakened her constitution, as she then developed a serious liver ailment, which our skillful veterinarian was able to cure with a variety of antibiotics. He warned us at the time that her health might have been permanently impaired. She was carefully nursed, and we had many people contact us with advice as to natural remedies and vitamins to use, mainly in the B series, to make up for any liver weakness. She made a considerable recovery, astonishing both our vet and myself, and was actually able to complete her field championship last few points in July of 1996.

As a consequence of the illness, and acting on my belief in her highly superior intelligence and warm relationship to people, I decided to focus on obedience competition, for fear of not only risks of injury on the field, but to do something less physically taxing to her health.

Our sighthounds here have benefitted from a long term relationship with Wendy Jackson, trainer and manager of the Burford Paris Dog Obedience School. She has not only helped our sighthounds from our earliest litter, but has become most interested in lure coursing, and has introduced in as part of the Working Collie program. We are all fortunate to live nearby, and close to Lakilanni Greyhounds, where Laurie Soutar has a coursing field and hosts among other events, the Greyhound Club of Canada Triathalon. She is the proud owner of No. 1 in Canada Greyhound courser Denim. This was an ideal proving ground for developing triathalon potential sighthounds and Rough Collies. The collies have been models for obedience, and the sighthounds inspiring them to coursing. Carting will be the coming thing in the group as well. Our training classes, coursing events, participating in the Working Collie weekend events, and working with parades and demonstrations at fairs, schools, and nursing homes have served to bring out the best in the sighthounds involved, and give a new dimension to collie activities as well. Without these two important contacts, Fanta's development would have not proceeded as far as it did.

Fanta took advantage of advanced classes, some sanction events, and the competition at the GCC weekends. She achieved qualifying scores in Novice B at two shows in Woodstock in summer 1998, and the final score at the GCC event, winning the Triathalon, largely on her obedience scores. As was mentioned, she had been taken off the field for coursing except for occasional outings at practices, for fear of any ill effects.

She had had a very quiet summer, seeming to lose her appetite, and to be content on the couch in the air conditioning. She went to the Triathalon strictly owing to the circumstances of it being perfect weather and not likely to be risky to course. After the win, we had the opportunity to travel to Boise, ID to deliver two Borzoi who were caught in the airline strike and ban on shipments owing to the heat. She had a lovely time, camping, lots of walks, and a chance to visit her breeder, Barbara Curtis. She traveled with her daughter Gherania, our �keeper' from our G litter, and we came back with a Denka daughter, Anastasia, to show in Canada, and one of our co-owned Salukis for the same purpose. She was still quiet and not eating much, but not in any ill health. During 1998 she had gone in and out of heat three times. It seemed reasonable to spay her to spare her this strain.

Disaster struck when she was taken for spay surgery at a clinic in Hamilton, Ohio.  She seemed to
make a normal recovery, and was alive and cheerful when I returned there with two of our dogs
who were due, one to have puppies, one to attend the Indianapolis shows.  The next morning she
was running a temperature of 103 and dehydrating.  Immediate treatment of every type was
administered on the spot, and she seemed fine, sitting up and drinking fluids.  After a brief
absence, we returned to find her in extremis, and nothing prevented her dying in my arms.  She
was truly a shooting star across my sky, and her death was the most grievous I have suffered.  We
had such plans for her.  Her mother had lived for five years longer.  She was due back in Ontario
to begin her carting classes and had been working on some of the CDX exercises.

From a medical position, we had been warned her life expectancy could be lowered by the liver disease, although it had seemed in abeyance. An autopsy revealed no visible heart or liver disease, or infection of the spay site. There was evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation, with no obvious cause. Her vet in Woodstock, with access to the total picture, thought that hepatitis might have been behind it, and the stress of the spay, with whatever bacteria might have been release, might have resulted in septicemia. Both the clinic in Hamilton and our own, using the latest anesthetics, have done many spays and neuters with no such outcomes. It was surely linked somehow to the previous liver condition.

What can be learned from this? If I had a recommendation for owners, do not take spay surgery lightly. Spay pets young, spay breeding stock as early as possible. If bitches are not spayed, malignant tumors or pyrometria are possible. If they are, most people I spoke to had suffered the loss of a female from surgery of this type. It is NOT without risk.

As to owning a triathalon Borzoi, watch the sky for shooting stars. One will be my Fanta, my dearest dog, now across the Rainbow Bridge, waiting for me. Cultivate all your Borzoi's talents, either together or in sequence. Take them as far as you can, and enjoy their achievements. Even if they cannot achieve titles in every area, they and you will have so much pleasure from the training, and event participation. Show people that Borzoi are not just hunting dogs to run fast, not just glorified coat racks to race around a ring, not patterned trained obedience dogs. They have the ability, when the genes are right, and you can spend the time, to be that special dog that can do it all.

Good-bye, Fanta. From start to finish, you were the best dog I ever had or will have. May many come after you with your love of people, other dogs, and your puppies, your model temperament and behaviour. Others runners will be born, but none so special to me or your many friends who are missing you with me.