As customary in the Christmas Season, once again we visited the people at the Roccabarbara kennels, this time however prepared to face the fact that our beloved Vitaliano Cattabiani Ferrari would not be there in body. Thus, together with Sandro, one of his closest friends, we spent a few hours with the dogs and the people who are still there. And talking about the dogs, among the many memories, one especially did occur to me, and brought me back to the early Nineties…
As a fresh graduate in Modern Languages, I used to make myself useful as a ring steward and remember hearing judges from all over Europe say "This is it" when they saw this particular representative of the Roccabarbara kennels, a wonderful bitch called Selvaggia. I hadn't seen many borzois when I started with my first one, but one thing is for sure: I'd never seen so much charisma, quality and movement in any dog or bitch before, and probably ever since.
It’s hard to tell where Selvaggia’s phenotype came from. She did not look like any of the large, predominantly white old Polianka dogs which Count Cattabiani was using… Maybe there was a hint of the ancient van de Zilverstrand, a line he worked with at the very start. On all accounts, Selvaggia was different, and could bewitch anybody. It was impressive. I remember exhibitors – who later became breeders and judges – from Italy and other neighbouring countries trying at every special show (you need to win 2 special or club shows in Italy if you want the Italian Champion title) but Selvaggia would be there, just for fun, since she had won by far more than what she needed for the Italian title.
Her owner Mr D'Urso was a peculiar person. He had been able to buy Selvaggia because she was "too small" according to Mr. Cattabiani Ferrari. So he kept entering Selvaggia in the open class and blocked everyone else. There were people from Italy, France, Switzerland, Slovenia and Germany coming to the specials but they never won, no matter who the judge was. I personally remember Mr. David Allan speechless at the Padua Special in 1993. With pen and paper in my hands, I was waiting for him to say anything and he just stood there, looking at Selvaggia.
When Selvaggia was mated to Eskenazi del Marchese di Rhieti we were shocked. Before the mating I remember her owner asking for a stud service from an established breeder. This dog, sired by a European Champion, was lovely in every detail but - unforgivable fault in Italy – measured only 82 cm at the withers. Be that as it may, at the very last moment Selvaggia’s owner called the mating off and announced he had an "American dog". We were all puzzled and we waited for the offspring. At the International Show in Milan (January 1995) Aldebaran de’ Nobile Veltrus and his litter mates were shown. The pups’ names were carefully chosen among those of Mr. Gabriele D’Annunzio’s sighthounds. A sublime poet, novelist, soldier, dandy and casanova of the early 19th Century, the great Gabriele D’Annunzio was famous – among other things - for his horses and sighthounds. And Selvaggia’s owner became famous too, namely for his arrogance in adotping those names.
Such a carefully chosen set of names, however, could not prevent the drop in quality in the dogs themselves. These dogs did not seem to have inherited a single hair of their dam’s outstanding quality, and accordingly, never won anything. They quickly disappeared from the scene except for Aldebaran, that was sent to try his fortune in Russia. That turned out to be a very fortunate circumstance, as we all know, since he ended up in the hands of an influential breeder and sired hundreds of puppies, some of which are found in the pedigrees of the most successful dogs to date. But that’s another story.
Below: A wonderful bitch in the Roccabarbara pedigrees, Tchaika de Mayerling
