Sonet od Kreczmerów (Smyk)

Champion of Poland

Sonet od Kreczmerów (Smyk) - October 1977 - October 1990

father: Sandstorm of Hilltop mother: Chalka z Vymyslenky breeder: Janina Kreczmer-Zapłatyńska owner: Krzysztof Masłowski

Six weeks old Smyk (Sonet od Kreczmerów) took up residence with us. He was tiny and squealed often – we thought he was longing after his Mum. We didn’t think that behaviour was going to stay for good: as time was passing he squealed more and more, and once grown up he used to squealed quite loudly. He just was like that – a dog of an enthusiastic attitude.

Mrs Kreczmer took care to register the dog in Polish Kennel Club and encouraged us to run in dog shows.

When Smyk was 8 months old I took him to a meeting of Spaniel Section of the Club chaired by late Dr. Kazimierz Ściesiński. In the second half of ’70 the Section offices were located next to Club Headquarter offices in the backyard of property with Blikle cake shop at the Nowy Świat street in Warsaw. As soon as I entered, a man sitting over the desk turned to me, poke at the dog and said: „He is the last puppy by Sandstorm that I didn’t see yet, isn’t he”. Words failed me – how he could be so sure, does he exactly know patterns of patches in the entire Sandstorm offspring? Surely he was kind of insane, I was thinking. However, Dr. Ściesiński (as you might have guessed) was perfectly sane – he just happen­ed to know (almost) everything on pedigree cocker spaniels. One glance on Smyk was for him enough to recognize Chalka’s son. I really don’t know how he managed. All I know is that he was a man of deep knowledge and perfectly good nose to follow. Merely enough and so much.

Mrs Kreczmer succeeded to talk me into showing Smyk at a dog show organi­zed in Łódź. Smyk was dolled up by an expert in grooming cocker spaniels (it took me and Ania about two years to learn how to prepare dogs to shows)… and won the coloured spaniels category (or at least almost won, it was so long ago that I can’t be sure of my memory). That time there were tens of cocker spaniels run­ning and all of them were split up into three categories: golden, black, and co­lour­ed. Since about 20 coloured spaniels ran, even the third prize was a success.

I got on the hook and began to tour majority of dog shows organized in Poland. A fierce competition was often battled between Smyk and Wellington vom House Page, a coloured cocker spaniel owned by Mr & Mrs Okoń. Later another competitor, Ole vom Forst Roegen, joined the lead.

Smyk quickly became Champion of Poland.

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At the beginning of 1983 Dr. Ściesiński asked me to write a replay to Ms Rosemary Charrington, owner of the Hilltop Kennel, from where Sandstorm, Smyk’s father, originated. She wrote a letter to Polish Kennel Club wondering what’s going on with Polish offspring by Sandstorm. I and Ania answered and the reply started an acquaintanceship, later transformed into friendship, lasting till Rosemary’s death in 1997.

We visited her a few times in Hallein Rif near Salzburg (Austria). She taught us plenty on topics related to breeding cocker spaniels and not only that. Rosemary shared with us pride and satisfaction on every success Smyk won in a show.

It was a beautiful period of time. We tasted true friendship, so a rare feeling among people.  

We loved Smyk very much even if his enthusiastic attitude was sometimes tiresome. Smyk just was doing everything with an uncontrollable enthusiasm.

We often took him on excursions to water reservoirs. When we hired a canoe and took a cruise with him through the Zalew Zegrzyński reservoir near Warsaw. Smyk used to jump out of the canoe, follow us swimming in the water, then asked us to pick him up; the cycle was repeated several times. We had to accept unavoidable showers in the canoe when he was flicking excess water away from his fur.

Thirteen years had quickly passed. In October 1990 Smyk died. We were left alone without our four-paw friend. Rosemary, informed on our misery, reacted immediately: “I’ve got another dog for you”. That way Nutcracker of Hilltop (aka Gawin), a gift from Rosemary, became our next friend after Smyk. We have been generously endowed with his love for almost 18 years.