I had found a great place for lingonberry picking close to the bordering zone. Next to us was a large bog, with a small islet about 300 metres away. Opri was somewhere. I went to the bog and saw that a bear had gone towards the islet. You could see morning faeces and a dent on the ground where the bear had slept. The bear had gone west. I knew that there would be a great place for the beast to hide about a kilometre away.
Opri went after the track. Barking was soon heard. We followed the tracks and waited about a hundred meters away. The animal was apparently moving when Opri changed locations. After an hour, I circled closer and saw the bear go across an old forest road. Opri returned after 15 minutes.
Next spring, I took Opri for a run, again towards the boarder. The headwind was strong, and I walked my bike up a hill. Suddenly, Opri stopped with its fur standing up, sniffing intensely for a scent. We stood still for a while. Opri was like a stone statue. Suddenly, about 20 metres away, a figure cautiously stood up. I was certain that a reindeer had woken up. When the figure kept on rising, I saw that it was a small bear. I flinched a bit, what if it had cubs. What would happen. The animal stood up for maybe 15 seconds, turned around and disappeared.
One spring, Opri took me and my brother in a harness to a female elk with its probably newborn calf. The mother behaved in a way that made us back off. My brother caught a good picture of the situation.
Opri was the best mover of all my dogs. It made very long search rounds. I had to get it a GPS to know where it was moving. It was a pity that it got ill at such a young age. It recovered quickly from the surgery. The veterinarian advised me to spare the dog from too long performances. I did not take Opri to the forest after surgery if I knew other dogs would be joining the hunt. It became aggressive if another dog came up to me. I wandered around with Opri when the “main hunting gang” was taking a break. We went to hunt birds also on our days off.
I have researched Opri’s pedigree carefully on the computer from the Finnish Kennel Club’s digital breeding database. Dogs that can be found in my dog’s pedigree in the long run are the following:
Hirvikuninkuus championship winners:
Ahovaaran Milkboy 2 times
Huhtian Jehu 1 time
Pete 38 times
Pörri 16 times
Rapsu 3 times
Roope 6 times
Rekku 3 times
Usvan Kirre 32 times
Usvan Kille 14 times
Usvan Panu 11 times
Usvan Killi 7 times
Usvan Kimi 10 times
Usvan Sissi 10 times
Usvan Jere 1 times
Panu 5 times
Murri 2 times
Hirvikungingattaruus championship winners:
Huikon Tupu 3 times
Jaana 1 time
Nätti 2 times
Kolmikuusen Nasku 1 time
Kaira 1 time
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.
