The Oscar.Net
All About Oscar
My name is
Solvi Nordin, I was born and grew up in Norway
In 1987 I was living in Florida, where I worked in a harness horse stable..called "Team Nordin", it consisted of Soren Nordin (from Sweden) a living legend within the harness racing sport, and his 2 sons, Ulf who is living and working in France, and Jan....
1990 Jan and I got married. Jan had 2 sons from his first marriage, Peter and Lars and we have together, Elisabeth born in Florida in 1990 and Eric born in Venice, Italy in 1995. Even though the training and driving business was zipping along well here in US (Team Nordin has set 44 World Records and won numerous big stakes wins) we were offered a contract for work in Italy that we accepted.
THIS is where Oscar comes in to the picture.....:-)))
Jan was to have his 50th birthday in September of 1997 and the only thing he wanted was A BLUE GREAT DANE !!! At the time I had 5 dogs..most of whom had found me..all colors shapes and sizes and I couldn't for the life of me, see the need for another dog....anyway...the research begins and I was able to find a breeder in Torino, Italy who was expecting a litter in the fall of -97. A month or two later he calls to tell me it was a "false pregnancy" BUT that he was to have another litter in January of-98...So we wait....
Sometime in
January he calls me to tell me that there were 5 puppies
born...4 of which are stillborn and the one who is still
breathing is a female that I could have...Since we only wanted a
boy and had said so from the beginning, we declined the offer
Two days later the breeder calls me back to tell me that a
friend of his had a "beautiful litter" and I can have a
boy......at this point I am rather uninterested in Great Danes
and kindly tell him that " I DON'T WANT A PUPPY " !!!!
A couple of days later I get another phone call...this time from Olindo Baldesi (The male counterpart of Kennel Castello Gamenario, Oscar's breeder) who proceeds to tell me that they have a wonderful litter on the ground and I can have "PICK MALE PUPPY"..............I tell him I am not interested.....he doesn't give up easily...and I give in.....
OK !! I
will take a PUPPY !!!!!!
He asks if I want the tallest, the most intelligent or the most elegant dog.....I of course say " I want the tallest, most intelligent AND elegant dog"..
Lots of laughter on the other end and he asked when I would come and do my pick....I said " YOU will pick for me".... very quiet on the other end of the phone ......he agreed to the deal, he actually didn't fulfill it 100% as Oscar did not turn out to be the tallest in his litter, there is at least one brother who is a good few inches taller...Should I be upset....
naaa, don't think so...who wants to trade smart and elegant for tall ??? :-))))
We picked Oscar up when he was 8 weeks old.
He was housetrained 7 days later. When we
picked him up, Sigrid and Olindo presented
to me Oscar's pedigree and it was clear that
they were VERY proud of this piece of paper,
which meant NOTHING to me....
I didn't buy a show dog anyway..had never
set my foot in a dog show and never intended
to... !!
I became very fond of Sigrid and Olindo in
the months ahead, learnt a great deal, so
when Oscar was 9 months old ( at 9 months
you can start to get points for the Italian
youth title) I decided to drive 4 hours to
Genova to take Oscar to his first show.
It was my respect and gratitude towards
Sigrid and Olindo that made me go to what I
thought would be the first and ONLY ever
show for Oscar :-)) Sigrid and Olindo had
introduced me to the owner of Quax del
Castello Gamenario (Oscar's uncle, great
show dog) who was to show Oscar for me. To
my absolute surprise Oscar got # 1 Excellent
and I am told this judge is not overly
generous with his judgments.....WE WON !!!!
Soo, now I have to go to the next show that
we also win and the third and the fourth and
the fifth.......and we win 8 shows in a row
!!! Now we have earned the 30 points that we
need to officially be an ITALIAN YOUTH
CHAMPION !!! People are telling me that it
isn't that easy to get this title...they
tell me I HAVE NO CLUE !!! Ohh well....:-)))
Then my husband informs me we will be
returning to the US, and we don't have
sufficient time to go for the adult Italian
title. sigh.
We came to US in the fall of -99. For a year and a half Oscar "works" in the stable and is the third kid in the
family. I am thinking that I should really get him
neutered because nobody here in US will be interested in
him anyway......and nobody knows of him, so what's the
use.... ?? My mother, almost 80 at the time suggests
that I should talk to somebody before i do, she thinks
that the American Danes might need some fresh genes ??!!
She doesn't even like dogs..or at least so she says...
Between me and you....well, we all know better :-)))
So I find Victoria Pearson's phone nr somewhere and she
suggest that I speak with Barbara Walkirck. When I
called Barbara Walkirck I said
" I am Norwegian, I have this Blu Natural eared Italian
male Great Dane".........it was so quiet... too
quiet...ah !
Then I said " He DID win all of his 8 shows in Italy
??!! "... Barbara said "aaaahh" :-)) and she agreed to
meet me to take a look at him....:-) And the rest is
history as they say.
At Oscar's first show I met Teresa Labrie. She has meant
more to me and Oscar than I can even begin to
express...Without her there wouldn't be an American
Champion with the fitting name of Terminetor del
Castello Gamenario alias "Oscar". She is truly a Great
Great Dane Mentor and my friend
Solvi Nordin
Now back in Italy