Fitzroy is one of six wonderful boys born at Edita Beresova's Really Irish kennel in the Czech Republic, and a great-nephew to our McKenna. Naming him caused us some problems as we want to keep to Irish surnames and have now used nearly all of those that we both like. However, after much deliberation and marital strife, and the drawing up of long-lists and short-lists, 'Fitzroy' (in spite of being Anglo-Irish) got both our votes. The 'Roy' probably won't get much more use than Kenna's 'Mc' or Mara's 'O', so our new gang of four will be: Kenna, Rafferty, Mara and Fitz.
Because the UK import regulations were relaxed in January 2012, Fitz could join us at four months old, unlike Kenna who had to wait until she was ten months, and to make things even better, another boy from the litter, Brody, came along with him to be a companion and heart-hound to our friend Rita Barrett, who tragically lost her boy Flynn (Rafferty's best friend) last year. We're sure Brody will be a great successor to Flynn-Bo!
I visited the litter with Rita for a weekend when the pups were about five weeks old. Choosing the Torteval boy wasn't easy at first. Because we were looking for a quality show dog as well as a companion, there were so many factors to consider. In the end though, the former 'Mr Grey' made it easy by simply insisting that he was 'the special one', and stealing my heart.
So on 4 May the Big Adventure to collect the boys began. Rita and I took the ferry from Guernsey - St Malo, then drove to Verdun in northern France, where Edita and Petr met us with the pups. The trip took three days, covering about 1,000 miles, and apart from Edita suffering the disaster of a smashed windscreen, it went without a hitch. Both boys coped magnificently with stress of the journey, and are now happily settling into their new lives.
