Ryszka has battled breast cancer successfully for the past 6 years. It has returned few months ago and she has now passed over the rainbow bridge at the age of 12 1/2. This time she was fighting the devastating type of cancer, Melanoma. Her lifetime achievement is the love she gave to all members of our family and her great spirit that is with us always. She was born in the litter of 7 puppies, 3 males, 4 females, at Kalypso Kennels Reg'd. She was a dark green puppy and all our previous Vizslas and now Toldi were dark green. I guess the color brings us exceptional dogs. We thank the breeders, Jayne and Howard Coneybeare of entrusting us with this puppy. At that time we have thought of starting our own Kennel, "Vizslas od Hornadu" and she was to be our foundation bitch. She had an exceptional pedigree and her obedience, show and hunting qualities were a given. We were novices in the show ring at that time in 1984 and Ryszka preferred to run in the fields and have fun, she did not like the show ring too much. It was our inexperience and nervousness that contributed to her dislike, we are sure. Therefore she has never achieved titles in the ring or the field due to our life's other demands. She had at that time great playmates in our two male Vizslas, Rex and Ficko (Rex passed away in 1993 & Ficko in 1998) and we have abandoned our breeding plans in favor of running businesses on two continents. She was a high spirited puppy and grew up to be the high spirited and smart Vizsla and the Senior Lady that we cherished and loved, with wisdom of her years to teach us many things, most important - how to enjoy life to the fullest every minute of every day. In October 1998 we have brought home a 8 week old puppy for Ryzska to to help us raise. Toldi a.k.a.... well, you all know from this Web site that Toldi has a lots of a.k.a.'s.... Ryzska had to teach Toldi how to behave, and after the initial snubbing time, she was a willing participant in his games and plays. She also thought him how to swim. That summer of 1999, she just got impatient with him and pushed him into the pool from the edge... and that was that! She has been his companion and playmate during his "terrible" teens. She has been battling cancer for about a year, it was in remission, but it came back, this time was not responding to treatment. We were taking it one day at the time and we tried to sear images of her majesty, sweetness and humor into our minds to keep with us forever. Ryzska has passed away in Frank's arms on June 5th exact date of the birthday twelve and a half years ago. He was carrying her to the van to take her to the vet that morning. I lay by her bed all night and we told each other stories of our wonderful like together. We have understood her decision that it is time to let her go, she told us in the night and she refused even the water in the morning. She was to the end the sweet friend and we will miss her till we die and see her again. She has tied a string to our heart so we can keep her with us always.