TARRA, her true story
"Because it is not allowed for her to commit herself to anybody else than me..."

"Now the situation in here has turned out as such, that I think something must be done...", said a totally unfamiliar telephonecaller from the Northern Karelian part of Finland. On an early spring evening as we had just returned to home from a two days' -working dog trial with our dogs. That phonecall and the horror story this women told us started that kind of period in our family we hope we never ever have to face again.

One year ago a little, black baby girl bouvier from our T-litter travelled to Northern Karelia. The owner candidate had eagerly been in contact with us all the time before and after this litter was born. In the end we agreed that she would give a puppy a good life with lots of activities. The owner candidate was a young professional farm worker who at that time had one 1.5 years old bouvier male and, as she told us, who had had a Great Dane before that bouvier. With detailed stories she described the training of the bouvier boy: how they had to drive long distances to participate any training Club's activities. They had started to train SAR and they had tried other working dog activities too, and found them very interesting. Now she would like to visit dog shows as well, the male had only one testicle and that's why couldn't take part in shows at all. So when the time came to pick up the puppy, she came to us (some 400 miles) by train and together we tried to evaluate the females and find the one who might do well in conformation side, too. The new owner was pleased to the puppy, we were happy to find an active and already a little bit experienced home for the little one, and the baby itself, she was smiling on her lap and ready to go. They were happy and we were happy.

Because they live so far away from us, some 400 miles, we were accuinted with this baby's everyday life only via phonecalls of the owner. But she called us often telling detailed stories about how the dogs did now cope with each other, about how they reacted as a third dog, a Landseer puppy, moved in, and about long walks early in the morning, before going to work. Planning and choosing shows to participate, wondering how to break the union those two bouviers had together founded against the Landseer pup...

And then we heard the breeder of the landseer had taken the puppy back because she had not been able to pay the whole prize of the puppy, as agreed on. And in came a new puppy: a Great Dane baby. And all kinds of difficulties started to emerge...

All the sudden, Tarra started to furiously break and tear down things if left at home alone. Allthough the owner spent lots of time with her outdoors before leaving for work, and nevertheless she was away from home only 3-4 hours' periods at a time. We suggested taking Tarra with her to work. She could wait in the car if it wasn't possible for her to follow the owner to all those different kind of work she permitted on the farm, in the stables and in the cow-house. But no - she was convinced Tarra would tear down the linings of the car. Such a total change had taken place in Tarra's behaviour and attitude towards the whole world that we suggested the owner should consider selling Tarra back to us. She wanted to think over this possibility. And then came this phonecall...

Jorma jumped in the car - still filled with all kinds of articles needed during a trial weekend - and spent the nigh driving towards North-Eastern Finland, Karelia. At 7 a'clock in the morning he was standing outside Tarra's home and pushing the doorbell. Nobody answered. Somewhere inside the house a dog barked every now and then. After waiting for two hours Jorma climbed to the window trying to see inside the house. In an empty livingroom, straight below the window, there sat Tarra. Totally apathetic like a zombie. She was very, very skinny and did not react at all to Jorma's jumping outside the window. Only after a while it acquired to Jorma that - Oh Lord, is she tied up somehow? It was difficult to see the dog because she was drooping just under the window by the wall. Jorma took off the driving mirror from our VW Kleinbus and with it he could see Tarra being tied up to the radiator with a 4 inch chain.

And nobody came home.. So Jorma left Tarra and drove to the police station of that little countryside village. The local vet was not found anywhere and the local policemen couldn't have been less interested in Jorma's story about the starving dog, tied and locked inside one of this village's houses. They tried to get rid of Jorma by claiming he couldn't prove, that kind of handling of this dog has been continuous. For a short while a slight glims of interest emerged in their eyes as one of them remembered to ask "Is this dog of some value in money?". But this interest died as quickly as it was born after Jorma had answered "Perhaps her value in money may reach that sum a vet wants, as a reward for euthanizing her..."

Meanwhile Piukku had made some phonecalls in Turku, too. There is one very respected and effecient lady who has worked a lot for all kind of animal rights here in Finland, Mrs. Anja Eerikainen. Piukku called direct to her. And was given a lot of hard facts and good advice about how to proceed. First at all, the police and the local vet are oblidged to take immediate action in case of suspected cruelty to animals. No proving of anything was needed, just a suspicion is enough for getting official help to check the situation. Inside the house a dog must be kept loose, actually it's totally meaningless weather the leash or chain allows the dog to move across all the rooms in the house, or weather the chain is really short, as in Tarra's case. By Finnish laws it's not allowed to tie down a dog inside the house. And if there are no people in the house, the police is allowed to break in. And they are obligated to break in for releasing the dog from the chain. Mrs. Anja Eerikainen gave Piukku some names and phonenumbers to contact if the local officers still wouldn't take any action. She even promised to personally take care of the case if needed. Than You, Anja.

As Piukku was making phonecalls in Turku, Jorma had returned to Tarra's home up there in the woods of Karelia. But still only dogs were at home... It was early afternoon when the owner came home. She couldnot axplain in any ways her actions with Tarra. Nearby the house there was a school and the children were having a break with their teachers. Jorma asked the teachers to witness Jorma buying Tarra back to us. So, Jorma had just bought a birthday present for himself. On that day he became 39 years old, but felt a whole lot older...

On the next night Jorma & Tarra were back in Turku. Almost 30 years I have had dogs and all the time I've been active in all fields of the kennellife. But not even in afternoon papers' news flashes have I seen nothing like Tarra. On our backyard there was a squating sceleton whos face and image seemed to begg for forgiveness all the time. She didn't have any coat, her fur was strangely made of something like short pieces of rope here and there in her body. Her right eye was covered with messy greenish fluid caused by an aggressive infection, and the left eye was not to be seen... there where you should see the eye was a thick shag binding the ear and the eye, and the whole left side of her head tightly together in one half-head package. She couldn't stand straight. Her front legs were almost laying on the ground because her nails were so long that her angles were bound on the ground. Jorma's one hand's fingers reached around her waist. She was terribly dirty, carcass-like smell followed her even out of doors, and did turn our stomacks upside down. On the backyard she cripled on my lap and her tail, thin like a little baby's finger, swifted. I started to cry and carried her to the sauna and tried to gently wet her with a warm shower. She started to hysterically drink the water. She had already drank a whole can of water Jorma had in the car and during the night, by the Tuesday morning, she drank some 6 liters of water. As we visited our vet on Tuesday she warned us that this heavy drinking of all fluids might continue for several days. All the fluids of Tarra's body were so dangerously dried that Tarra would have dryed up to death - if not starved - in only a couple of days.

There were more moments of horror to came. As I tried to clean up Tarra's head - with that warm shower - I slowly and carefully tried to separate the hairpackage across the left eye. At last all the hair was loosely hanging - but there was still no eye to be seen! I literally collapsed and screamed Jorma for help. We continued the cleaning up for ages and ages, and in the end we could see the eye deep down on the bottom and covered with thick inflammated eyelips. Those eyes we will never forget. All the time she looked at us with that one still functioning eye having so a gentle, almost devoted look and she tried to stick on us so closely and tightly and totally as possible.

We were told that Tarra had been living in that 4" chain continuosly. She had been tied up like this and left alone in that sitting position for example for two and a half days. During those long days she could not move at all, she got no food or water, she couldn't go out, but had to sit there in her own urine. She had spent the Christmas Evening in a closet, once again tied up to a sitting position and this time also forced to wear a muzzle. As a neighbour visited the house and wondered why in heaven's name, this sweet, gentle bouviergirl had to sit there in the dark alone, the owner explained that "She must stay there, because it's not allowed for her to commit herself to anybody else than me". Sick, insane words from a lunatic's mind, of which there was no sense to be found, but only dark curses of wild demons to catch.

Later we were told that this young women had already had some 20 dogs in three years time. Many of them returned to their breeders because of the unpaid prize of the puppy. Tarra was paid by instalments but stricktly by the schedule we had agreed on. Most of the dogs lost their mind and/or legs and were sold further on. Just like a 7 months old Doberman who became furious and unpredictively aggressive and was sold as a guardin dog to some poor bastard who knew nothing about animals, not to talk about dogs. All those detailed stories about training SAR and being active in all kinds of other local kennel-activities were significant products of a rich and colourfull imagination of this lunatic.

Even the stories about working on a farm were just imagined, actually she had not been working at all during Tarra's presence. In fact, she was living with the help of our social wellfare system. Nobody has ever seen her on training fields, etc, etc. All, frequently heard, long and detailed stories concerning herself and her dogs were just fairytales...

As Tarra returned home to us she was like a giant, 7-weeks old spider-puppy. The whole world was uncovered and new. She was not acquinted with furniture. She walked as well on the table as on the floor - once she simply walked through the bookshelf as the lower shelves were empty... She did not know how to walk on a leash. She was motorically very undeveloped - speed she had, but not the skills to control her movements. She never barked eventhough we had at that time five adult bouviers who never left us uninformed if a visitor or his car came to our door. She did not know how to play with other dogs or what to do with balls and all kind of other toys. She had spent her childhood tied up to a radiator.

before Jorma left to Karelia after that scary phonecall we had made an agreement: If there are any possibilities Tarra's recovering from the horrors of her life, Jorma would bring her home to Turku. If the real world would have been like an endless nightmare to her, if her fear for life should have been overwhelming or already transformed to aggressivity, it might be right to show some mercy on her and let her fall asleep for the last time.

For the rest of my life and from the bottom of my heart I will respect that dog. From all those experiences I wouldn't have survived, so thoroughly and in such a short time. From the very first moments in Turku Tarra was so touchingly gratefull of all the attention we paid to her. Her eye, and later on both eyes were filled with warm and honest friendlyness. She tried to please us in all the ways she could imagine and in spite of the rudeness the world had shown to her, she was very curious to find out all the miracles she had not yet met.

During the first week she literally slept on Jorma, and as Jorma went out of doors without Tarra she tried to follow him through a closed window. She was afraid of sudden quickly movements and loud noises. On the yard we couldn't throw any balls etc. to our other bouviers either: Tarra started to kneel down on our legs and her eyes begged "Don't, please, don't... I'll surrender." She was afraid of puppies and she was afraid of children. But that's all. In one afternoons time she learned to love toys. She was always ready for a walk and would have walked round the Scandinavia if she were allowed to. She enjoyed participating in training field's happenings, and didn't even react to shooting. Jorma took one week off the work for avoiding Tarra's leaving alone and for being able to take care of her, feed her every 3rd hour, give her the medicines etc. After that we "worked in turns", Piukku left home early in the morning, came to pay a visit during lunch hour and returned also early. Jorma left home aerly in the afternoon and returned late from work. With this system the periods Tarra was left at home without us were short and everything went ok. During the fourth week one visit at lunch time was enough for her. We had returned to our normal routine schedules.

After one month, different kind of medicines had done good job for her wellfare and all those specialfoods given often but in small quantities, had given her strength so that she didn't look like an anorexia - patient, it was time to start thinking of her future. Living with us would mean sharing our attention with five other adult bouviers.Until now we had concentrated in healing Tarra, introducing a much more beautifull world for her than that she had been used to. But much more richer life she would have in a family where there wouldn't be so many dogs as we already had.

She was the very best friend of Yka, her litterbrother we had left home, and she clearly enjoyed doing everything with us. She was totally silent, mute when she came back to us, but now she reacted immediatelly to her name, to words like "good" and "no". She knew perfectly well the contents of words "food", "wait", "jump in", "up", "sit", "down", "brush". So where from could we find a new home for a dog who needs a lot of attention and love, at least not at the moment isn't able to handle any kind of pressure, but is very eager to participate in everything her people are involved in.

Tarra spent two months with us. Just like she did after her birth. At the age of eight weeks of her new life she left us for her last and best home. She moved to Vaasa and started her life as Mrs. Marina Lovgren's dog. Thank you, Marina. She didn't miss us, she wasn't feeling sad or missery. She had another litterbrother, Ritsa (N. Tavarits), waiting for her with Marina. And she got the best possible Ma' with a warm heart and lots of caring. And a gentle mate who was just thrilled about an own girlfriend and who took a role of a perfect gentleman letting Tarra to decide when to do what, with whom and in which way... Ritsa was an excellent therapist for Tarra by backing her up in everything she decided to do!

The unknown caretaker who phoned us should be rewarded as an example of brave and responsible citizenship scarcely found. She had to work hard to find us; somehow she managed to get Tarra's breeders name, then she had to call to Finnish Kennel Club (our phonenumber was not in the phonebook; after this episode it has been there!) to get our number and it was the fourth time she was calling to us as she finally managed to reach us at home! Gratefully and humbly we can only wish this kind of brave citizens will be found to help all the other Tarras there most certainly are here and there in the world.

During the first days in Vaasa it was impossible for Marina to go anywhere without Tarra, but very quickly Tarra believed that this Mam and this bouvierbrother will stay and be always there for her. She follows her litterbrother to the trainingfields, in the woods, to the seashore, to the summer-cottage. She is master in swimming and diving, escaping to the woods with all the toys in her teeth and laughing at his brother "Try to catch me, try to catch... I'm faster than you and I have all the toys with me!". May the Lord have mercy and let this episode be the one and only we have to face with such cruelty in humans beings focused to a helpless puppy.

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