Our Friend Flicka

As I posted, back in May (here), we had been preparing for the arrival of another puppy from Hungary named Fricska. Well, after a series of delays for various reasons, we finally were able to make the arrangements for her travel to the US. The 4th of July weekend was coming up, and since we would all have an extra day off, I thought that would be a perfect time to bring in a new dog. So I made the arrangements with the pet shipping company to have Diana drive Fricska to the Vienna airport, where she would fly to SFO with a brief stop in Zurich.

Fricska winning a Baby Best in Show

the weekend before she flew to us

The puppy would be flying with Swiss Air Cargo, the same airline that Rietsu came on, and their shipments always arrive at about 4:30 pm. Since it was a holiday weekend, I I took a half day off at work so we could leave early and not get stopped in bay area traffic (I didn't want the puppy to have to sit in the cargo warehouse longer than necessary).

We made it into the city fairly quickly, and with several hours to kill we decided to grab something to eat and do a little window shopping in Milbrea while we waited. There just happened to be a pet store in the same strip mall where we were eating, so we stopped by to grab a new toy for our new arrival as a sort of welcome present.

When we had about an hour before the plane landed, we drove back to the airport and waited, but by the time 4:30 rolled around I suddenly realized that we were in the wrong area. Apparently Swiss Cargo had moved it's receiving station, but thankfully not far from where it had been before.

Happy to be out of her crate!

Nevertheless, we needn't have rushed, because it took almost an hour for the cargo people to collect the necessary documents for us to take over to the customs office before we could actually claim her. Add to that a silly mistake with her paperwork, and it took almost another 20 minutes to actually collect her. When we were finally allowed to take her out of the crate, she was all wiggles and happy smiles!

We led her to the closest place we could find to see if she needed to go to the bathroom, but it was apparent that she had already soiled her crate, so I wasn't surprised when she didn't do anything.

Relaxing in the yard

We then drove over to my friend Shannon's house where we waited until the early evening before departing back home. Fricska explored Shannon's yard and mingled with her Dachshund, Renley, like she had been here her whole life. So far, she had not met a stranger and was happy as a clam.

Flicka and Shannon

Her friendly ways have continued ever since, and we could not be happier with her. She is a real gem! Because her given name is too difficult for our American tongues to pronounce, we decided to call her Flicka, after the beloved horse in the popular 1950's television series.

A New Arrival: June 2016

Photo by Diana Komaromi

We are extremely excited about the upcoming litter between Patti and Gator, but I don't want that to overshadow another very exciting bit of news. Last year, Remy's owner (Remy is Gil's litter sister, for those who might not remember), Diana, informed me that she was planning to breed Remy one last time, to a very accomplished and prepotent hunting dog named Vándor. She had acquired Vándor as a mature adult, as well as Vándor's sire, Finom. Given the outstanding nature of this potential litter's pedigree, and the fact that we are terribly short on breedable bitches here in the states, this was an opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. So, we told Diana that should a litter be born we would be very interested in taking a puppy, preferably a bitch puppy. To our delight, and hers as well, she happily agreed.

Remy and Vándor
Photo by Diana Komaromi

So we waited patiently for Remy to come in season, and when she did she was bred to Vándor a single time. Now all we had to do was wait. Given the size and success of Remy's first litter, I had little doubt that she would conceive, but given her age there was always the possibility of a miss, or at the very least a small litter.

Photo by Diana Komaromi

Come February, Remy's belly was growing larger and larger by the day, and on February 6th she finally popped. A total of 8 puppies were delivered; 6 girls and 2 boys. We were thrilled, and very happy that there were so many girls to choose from.

Photo by Diana Komaromi

As the puppies grew, Diana kept in touch with me and always asked if there was any particular puppy that I had my eyes on. At that early stage, there wasn't any particular puppy that stood out to me, so I kept on waiting and watching intently as the weeks went by.

Look at that face!

Photo by Diana Komaromi

By the time the puppies were 7 weeks old, Diana was able to give me a better idea of what their individual personalities were like. We narrowed it down to two of the girls, one named Fesztivál and one named Fricska (this is the Cserihegyi F-litter). Just based on their photos, Fesztivál appealed to me because she has a black mask that makes her look a bit like Gil, but I never want to make decisions based on color or markings. According to Diana, Fesztivál was more laid back that Fricksa, but both were very nice puppies. I told Diana that my preference was for a bolder, more confident puppy, so that meant Fricksa was the winner!

Fricksa

Photo by Diana Komaromi

Fricksa means "Flip" in Hungarian, which I think is an adorable name for a spirited little Agar puppy! In order to prevent a lengthy quarantine, we have to wait until Fricksa is 4 months old before she can be shipped to us here in California. However, with Patti's due date looming in early June, we decided to wait until late June to have her flown out. So, we will be waiting patiently for our bundles of joy to arrive next month. All of them :-)

Fricksa

Photo by Diana Komaromi