After leaving Vyborg, our evacuation journey ended at the turn of the year 1945–1946 to Kevätniemi in Lieksa, North Karelia. I was 10 years old back then. A stunning view overlooking lake Pielinen opened from my father’s official residence, and the hills of Koli appeared in the distance. When you went east from the kitchen door, you would soon find yourself in the forests surrounding Lieksa, by lake Jonkeri in Kuhmo, or at Patvinsuo bog areas north of lake Koitere, where we went cloudberry picking. My father’s frequent fishing buddy, our close neighbour who had served in a long-range reconnaissance patrol during the war, told fascinating stories about his trips to East Karelia, its forests and villages. He also sometimes mentioned that there were handsome black and white dogs in the villages, usually angry ones. I eagerly joined my father and his friend on their weekend trips to lake Pielinen.
In the other end of our semi-detached house lived forester Yrjö Rantala, who had colleagues with similar experiences. The father of the Finnish Kennel Club’s former executive director Pekka Ketonen was the manager of the Kevätniemi sawmill. He had a German Pointer named Friidu, a double champion. I enjoyed spending time with its puppies.
Already back then, I read a lot of literature featuring the wilderness. I was especially fascinated by books written by A. E. Järvinen. After the new year of 1951, my father told me that he would buy me a rifle and a bear dog puppy. I learned to shoot at the landfill, with rats as my target.
In the spring, we got a Karelian Bear Dog puppy, a male named Peni. The puppies came from our neighbour Yrjö Rantala’s hometown Parikkala and they took Peni’s brother Pete. The sire was Ahmon Vorna, its sire was Selki and dam Nalle, both from East Karelia. The dam of the puppies was Peikko. Peikko’s dam had been acquired from Sirola in Kuopio. Peikko was closely related to Sarik, a puppy after Tuusik and Sjorga from Juustjärvi.
When Peni and Pete were about 7 months old, we went to the wilderness in Ruunaa, close to the Russian border, with the aim to observe how the brothers moved around in unknown terrain. While having coffee on a bog islet, we saw the dogs running to the edge of the bog and starting a loud fight. My buddy told me to sneak up to see what was happening. A magnificent view awaited about a hundred meters away. A bear mother with its cub attracted the dogs. After about 10 minutes, the bear family ran away. The dogs came up to me. I consoled them and together we stated “Off they went”.
When we got back to the car, we saw Voitto Lahti from Pankakoski coming up with his bike, together with two bear dogs (the female was a daughter of Selki). He told me that he had been informed that morning that a bear family had been spotted in Ruunaa.
In the autumn of 1952, I took Peni to a dog show in Joensuu. Four dogs competed in the Winner’s class. Peni came third. The other ones were bred by Veikko Mielonen and were sons of double champion Kyttä. In his kennel Usvan, Mielonen had females such as Jepen Miina, Ilon Sisu, Jalo Ärkky, and Kärä. He started his breeding career with those females.
The next autumn in Joensuu, an anniversary show of a local canine society, Pohjois-Karjalan Kennelmiehet, was held in Joensuu. Two dogs competed in Winner’s class; Veikko Mielonen with Rymy and I with Peni. Rymy was large, very handsome, almost completely black, but kept hanging its tail almost straight down. The judge was clearly unsure of which one to pick as the winner. Then, Veikko decided to pull a prank on Peni’s unexperienced owner, saying ”Let’s have the dogs sniff on each other”. Rymy’s tail went up and the game was over. I wondered why the judge did not award a certificate to the winner. I met Veikko Mielonen again several times over decades on different occasions. I learned a lot from him.
When Peni was 3–4 years old, I came home from school and noticed that something was going on at the local clubhouse. Väinö Heikkinen, who shot nearly 40 bears in his life, had come to present two male bears he had shot. While being there, this former sniper and partisan was also collecting money for war veterans. I went quickly home to pick up Peni. When I came back, Väinö asked ”I wonder if your dog is scared of the bear”. I said “We’ll see soon enough”. At that time, Väinö had two small landrace spitz – both good at barking at bear and caused a commotion when seeing Peni. My dog sniffed the air a couple of times and attacked the bear, tugging it from its back leg.
A few weeks later, Väinö’s brother-in-law stood on our yard. “Could I mate my dog with yours?”. The deed was done. Next spring, Peni mated a female named Jepen Töpö, owner border sergeant Pitkänen.
Later, Väinö Heikkinen had several pedigree dogs. I saw Pöyröön Ronski, that was awarded a certificate at a show in Lieksa. It was the brother of Pöyröön Romulus, owner Virrankoski. The parents of these dogs were Hirven Romulus and Pöyröön Mörkö (sire double champion Kyttä), the first female double champion in Karelian Bear Dogs. Mörkö’s dam was Pöyröö, daughter of Hirven Romulus. Virrankoski lived in Joensuu, Eastern Finland, but moved later to Kokkola on the west coast. He started his breeding career with inbreeding. His puppies were mostly found in Northern Finland. The females Heikkinen had, Rippe (certificate from Joensuu) and Seri were excellent hunting dogs. Väinö also had some dog from kennel Usvan. I sometimes took my guests to look at Heikkinen’s collection of bear skulls. I was once going to buy a puppy from him but when the pick-up time was approaching, he announced that “there was some genetic error, the puppies are short-legged”. Seri was killed by a wolf.
Peni had a very large territory. We mainly kept it on a run cable but sometimes let it run around loose. Peni could disappear for a few days. Sometimes it had gotten into fights and came back home to lick its wounds. One time, we picked it up from an island in lake Pielinen, after getting a tip about a bear dog that had been closed into a farm building. A marked-out horse road went from the shore in Kevätniemi to shore villages in Viensuu next to lake Pielinen. A man had gone to Lieksa to run some errands and had a female in heat tied up to his sled. Peni had smelled the female and ran after it.
One time, a man from Kylänlahti came angrily with his rifle and told that Peni had chased his sheep to the lake. The old man did not calm down until our neighbour told him that Peni had been on the run cable for at least a month. Peni was always eager to go to the forest. After coming home from school one day, we went to the terrain of Riihivaara, by the road that led to Nurmes. After wandering some time, I heard Peni’s bark from very far away. I approached the bark and looked up to a spruce tree. Suddenly, something grey and white moved in the tree. A wild cat was sitting on the branch and hissed at Peni. They day had already began to darken when I managed that task. I was in unfamiliar terrain and lost. When I came home in the morning, my father said: “Now eat something and off to school”.
Sometimes, Peni carried home chicken and turkey, which he dropped alive on our porch.
My little brother visited his friends about a kilometre away from our home. No one lived by that road. One time, it was already dark and there were no streetlights. My mother wondered many times aloud where the boy was. Peni asked to go outside. It had gone to the house where my brother was at, barked in front of the boy, and finally pulled him from the pant leg. The friends came home together.
If I took my bike to Lieksa town centre, there was no need to lock it if I had Peni with me. I asked my father if he still needed his officer’s belt from the war. I made it into a pulling harness. Peni got great exercise on the spring snow when I took him around lake Pielinen. Peni died at the age of 5 years, after being hit by a timber truck. My father said: “Let’s get a new dog”.
The memoirs of Jouko Mutanen have been published in the Pystykorva magazine in 2014 in seven parts. The memoirs are now available online for the first time ever. Mutanen gave the original texts he wrote to the Finnish Spitz Association (Suomen Pystykorvajärjestö) in 2012.
