After year 1984 I have not seen any irish wolfhound in reality, but the wish- to have one- lived in me. In those days I was looking any type of literature I could get which was very little on the breed. So I was dreaming about it, and dreaming, and dreaming....
And so on 29th April year 1991 I was in Moscow meeting the owner of irish wolfhound Hassini Saggitarius (Has). Has himself were on summer holidays at the countryside while I was meeting his owner. We were going to pick up the puppy for me at one of the irish wolfhound kennels. We were brought in the room where there were 11 puppies only 1 month old. And I became speechless. The puppies did not look after the dog which I saw in 1984. They looked more like overgrown rats with very long tails and clumsy movements. Being very confused I was choosing a puppy for me and thinking to myself “is that the dog I was looking for, for such a long period of time?” I was asking to show me mother of those puppies. The owner of the dog was not very pleased with my request telling me that the dog mother was not in condition after giving birth to so many puppies, but still showes us Driana Grandis. Just seeing for a second, I realize that, yes, this has been my dream for all these years!
I was taking to Riga my first irish wolfhound Der Linda Dorsi (Linda). I have to admit that Linda became the third baby at home. For the first days while Linda was with us my daughter who was 6 years old at that time was singing lullubies to her until we took Linda to our bedroom. My son, 5 years old, refused to eat pasta only because, as we found out later, Linda loved them. So he gave all his leftover pasta to Linda as soon as he can. My kids did not like any milk products at all, but Linda taught them to eat cottage cheese and to drink milk. Once I heard my daughter telling to her friends over the phone that her mum is busy making cottage cheese for Linda and that they will also get one.
When we were outing- going by boat, going to visit friends we were always going together the whole family and Linda was always with us.
She died 5 months old. That was the time when epidemic virus was going all around country and our veterinary service was still not so professional to deal with it.
Linda will always be my very first irish wolfhound. She has explained me that irish wolfhound is not only a dog, but a full member of the family.
