The Murmansk
Journey
Our first Samoyed arrived long
before 1984. Shannon
was a pure-bred Samoyed without that pedigree paper. She soon became a well
known face in the parks around Christchurch. When we got our first show Samoyed
she came to the shows with him and didn't let the fact that she was diabetic
deter her or her owners. She took honorary sashes in many ribbon parades and
veteran parades.
Since registering our kennel in 1984, we have bred regularly every couple of years. After several years in the doldrums, Ch
Tobolsk Lady in Silk at Murmansk (Ana) has produced a healthy
litter of 5 puppies. Prior to Ana's successful mating (now several years ago) we 'imported' a pup from Kalnovitch Samoyeds, which is leading us in a new direction breeding wise, but still with Murmansk in the background. CH Kalnovitch Nova Kazia (Liv) has already
achieved far more than we imagined in the show ring with a Puppy in Show at her
first outing in Puppy (to add to her Baby Puppy achievements). She has also given us a healthy litter of pups to Skrownek Fia Zelig which we are thrilled with.
Our foundation show dog - Ch
Skrownek Jad (Jad) did well in the show ring, taking out BIS in
the DSC Championship Show in 1984 and also sired our first litter with our
foundation bitch Ch Krisman
Casa-Karrelova (Aja).
Foxworth Bukhara
made her home with us for a while (winning 2 challenge certificates) before she
became a queen at a doting home of her own - nothing beats two doting adults,
two doting kids and even a doting cat! She died at a good age long after the kids had left home.
Ch Krisman Casa-Karrelova
(Aja) produced three litters for Murmansk - one to Jad, another to Gr Ch
Samways Summer Knight and a third to Gr Ch Nikolaevsk An Bye Lay. In those
three litters she only lost one pup - a pity that didn't continue on in future
years with her children and grandchildren!
Aja's children formed the foundation of Murmansk - Ch Murmansk Chevardnadze(Chevy), Ch Raisa of Murmansk
(Raisa) and Ch Taleah of
Murmansk (Leah).
Ch Murmansk Chevardnadzedid tremendously well in the ring with his main claim to fame being Best of Group at the first ever All Breeds Utility Group in New Zealand.
Ch Raisa of Murmansk
(Raisa) in turn gave us two litters (each producing only three live pups) which
included Ch Murmansk Martina,
Ch Murmansk Tomsk and Ch
Murmansk Tatyana (Tatti).
CH Murmansk Martina
went on to win well, her highlight being BIS at the DSC Championship Show in
1997. Marty left us at the tender age of 7 with a rare nasal cancer. Just prior
to this Ch Murmansk Tatyana
was killed by a hit and run driver. This put our kennel into turmoil with no
breeding bitches alive.
Tobolsk Samoyeds in Auckland came to our aid with Ch Tobolsk Lady in Silk (later to be
registered as Ch Tobolsk
Lady in Silk at Murmansk. Ana has kept us sane in some respects and not in others! We tell people it is the Australian blood in her! She gave us two litters, the first leaving no pups alive after 24 hours, the second producing some lovely pups which are all in loving homes.
Ch Taleah of Murmansk
(Leah) finally produced two litters later in life than we had anticipated -
both by AI. Her first litter gave us Ch Murmansk Nicholae (Nic) and Murmansk Vladlen
(Oscar) and her second Murmansk
Galushka (Horace). Both Nic and Oscar came up trumps with
excellent hip results. Horace was not so lucky!
Ch Murmansk Martina (Marty)
gave us two litters - both quite large, but the second litter was doomed
(primarily to veterinary incompetence) and we lost 11 out of 13 pups. From her
first litter there were some real quality pups, but due to circumstances beyond
our control none of the pups were ever titled. However, sometimes there is more
to breeding than the showring and we share the joy of their lives with
wonderful owners, whatever litter they came from. We have also been lucky
enough to have made some wonderful friends through the sale of little white
fluffballs.
Sunmist Cuvee Riccadonna (Rikki) arrived without fuss at Murmansk to temperatures much lower than her native Australia. She coped very well with the air trip and fitted in very quickly, but I did note that it took her a while to figure out what water was! (Thanks to Janet Ainscow for breeding Rikki and taking such good care of her before passing her onto us.) Due to an operation on my knee Rikki's ring debut was delayed, but she has gone on to win several groups.
Murmansk Tatania (Cobi) was born a few weeks after Rikki arrived and the two have become great mates. Cobi made her ring debut at the local winery ribbon parade but is somewhat shell shocked by the whole deal. She is now adjusting very nicely, especially now that her "dad" is showing her.
For those of you interested in the speedway side of Murmansk, click on Three Quarter Midget No. 63C, driven by Michael Moulin and owned by a bunch of us. (Sponsored by Accessman - 0800 2 Get High.)
Past Treasures The Future Brings