IKIMBA MARIMBA aka IITA

INT, BALT, FIN, EST, RUS, LTU, LV & BLR CH, EUW-99, ESTW-99 & BALTW-98
IKIMBA MARIMBA, ROM »IITA«
PEDIGREE

13.8.1996 - 6.9.2003 HD : A ED : 0/0 One missing P1 Height: 65 cm Weight: 37 kg
Breeder : Marianne Gellin

Iita was our foundation bitch and she has had 3 litters. Also all of her puppies have had beautiful ridgies though two puppies had three crowns. Iita was inseminated with Bearstar Ko in July, but unfortunately we were not lucky this time. She was inseminated again from the next season. This time we were lucky and we had SUMMER-2003 puppies ! They were born in May 10th, 2003.

Iita was our sunshine - the kindest and happiest ridgeback we knew. She liked ALL creatures, large and small - animals and people as well. Wagged her tail very often and seemed to be interested in everything. She always knew how to behave and seemed to find her right place in every situation. She never paniced and wasn't afraid of anything. In the same time she had all kind of tricks on her mind and played them every now and then. Iita resembled a perfect balance in ridgeback - in character as well. And her temperament (among other things) made her a superb mom for her puppies. She also loved to spend time with puppies, even so much that we had to ask her to go out with us.

Iita has done extremely well in show rings. She had only been shown few times after the puppies, but twice she had even beaten Siiri. In 1999 she was the most succesfull show ridgeback in Finland and made history beeing the first bitch ever to reach such high points. 1998 she was she was 2nd best just after male, Afrikana's Kazai af M'Zungu alias Veikko. I've collected Iita's show high lights to own page:

Iita also did some history becoming a first Finnish born ridgback bitch ever to become International Champion. She received the needed CACIB from Hans W. Müller in St Gallen, CH. Also a week later Mr Müller made her European Champion (she was bos) in Tulln, AU.
Iita also did some history in Eastern countries as she was the first Finnish rr-bitch to become Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Champion and the first Finnish rr ever to become Russian and Belarussian Champion. The competition is not so tough (because the entries are not so high) in those countries, but the judges are from foreign countries, so you don't get anything for free.

We had planned to start to show her again in veteran classes, but unfortunately we lost her 6.9.2003. She died naturally very close to our house, on a very warm and sunny autumn day. Her loss left a huge hole to our hearts and also our other girls, Olga & Siiri, miss her too. There will never be a new Iita, but she still lives in her 31 beutiful puppies. Thank you Iita !


St Petersburg, RU	Tulln, AU