THE STORY ABOUT MY DOG “Born To Win White Elvis”
Information listed by Glenn Lundström

-Monday, May 26, 2008
I travelled by car together with my daughter Petra, to Estonia for collecting the dog “Elvis”, which Petra had purchased from the breeder. Mrs. Monika Laneman kennel “Born To Win”.

- We left to Sweden at 2pm and arrived to Helsinki 1 am (next day), local time, from where we took the early ferry-boat to Tallinn (08.00-09.30 hrs, local time). This had been agreed between Petra and Monika already on Monday.

During the ferry-trip, Monika sent a SMS to Petra, saying that we could not meet until 4.30-5.00 pm after Monika has finished the job for the day.

Petra sent a new SMS to Monika 4.40 pm to learn when she would come and meet with us. She replied shortly after 6 pm and met with us at an address in Tallinn which Petra had reported to Monika.

- We went to Monika’s home, outside Tallinn, where we could see all her dogs. Monika and her husband took good care of us and we spoke “dog” for hours during the late evening.

- It was too late for us to travel back the same day, as planned, but was offered to stay as their guests until next morning.

- Wednesday, May 28 the first ferry-boat to Helsinki was fully booked why we had to wait until 10.30 am for the next one.

- Arriving Helsinki at noon, local time, we headed north and made just a few small breaks underway to let the dog get some exercise.

- We stopped in Maksniemi to fill fuel at a Teboil service station.

It was just before 10 pm as we faced the miss happening with “Elvis”. As I should take the dog out of the car, Elvis jumped out, cracked the buckle to the lead, and run away. It is possible or likely that Elvis got frightened by a big lorry which passed at that moment.

-I called the police at 10.14 pm in order to get assistance to warn other cars traveling at E75. We were just told that it is our duty and responsibility to catch the dog.

-As we had only known Elvis for half a day, it is understandable that he did not come when we called for him. Now Petra sent an SMS (01.24 am) to Monika and asked if she could come and assist to catch Elvis. She replied that she was not willing to go abroad to search the dog.

- We searched Elvis the whole night trough without any result.

-Thursday, May 29. At 08 am, we went to the police station in Kemi to inform that we had not found the dog. They just said, there was nothing they could do for helping us.

- We travelled back to Maksniemi where we spent the whole day, trying to catch Elvis.

- At several occasions, we could see him but could not get close to him.

- We went to Kemi and got assistance by the police to make photo-copies in order to distribute them to local people. They helped us a lot to look for the dog, but with no success, At 6 pm, we went back to Sweden to collect two well-trained trace dogs for assisting us in the search for Elvis.

Friday, May 30, Together with Svante Lyngmark and Benny Sköld and their two dogs, we travelled to Maksniemi for trying to find and catch Elvis. Both Svante and Benny are experienced with handling dogs and run successful kennels in Sweden. However, they have not experienced that a dog keeps away from both other animals and human beings.

-They spent the whole day in Maksniemi but failed to catch Elvis. After having placed food and water for the dog at a number of places, they returned back to Sweden at about 10 pm.

Saturday, May 31

-I went to back to Maksniemi, accompanied by Petra and Benny. The reason was that we had been informed that Monika was there together with a man to search Elvis.

-We were of course somewhat astonished that Monika had not informed us about this.

- We did not see either Monika or her car as we drove around in the Maksniemi – area.

- I walked around the whole area with trace dog, but found no indication that Elvis still was there. We put out some food again, as all previously placed food was consumed.

We returned to Sweden on Sunday June 1.

Petra called Monika and sent her a number of SMS to learn it she had found Elvis. No reply.
According to the locals, Monika had informed that she should leave Finland once she had caught Elvis.

Monday, June 2, Svante and Petra went back to Maksniemi, together with two trace dogs, after they were informed that Monika together with some other people and trace dogs are in the forest, searching Elvis. Petra and Svante followed them and met with Monika.

She seemed to be quite nervous and was reluctant to talk about Elvis, yes; they had seen him but failed to catch him. They continued the search until the evening without success.

-Monika’s partners had been to Rovaniemi and borrowed a catch cage, which was believed to become helpful for catching Elvis.

 At 6 pm, we got some indication that Elvis had been trapped, Petra and Svante drove into that area but were blocked by three cars, one in front of them and two behind them. They could not enter the place where Monika and the catch cage were located.

-Monika’s friends told Petra and Svante that Elvis had run away again. Svante helped to make the catch cage ready to operate and were cheered by Monika’s friends that “this time we’ll catch him”.

- Petra and Svante checked the catch cage several times during the night without finding anything. They did not either see Monika any longer in that area.

- Next morning, a person in the village received an SMS informing that Monika now had Elvis and they were just now on the ferry-boat from Helsinki to Tallinn. Another person could inform that Monika had taken Elvis the last evening and traveled back to Estonia.

- It was also told that, Monika had got assistance from her Finnish friends to smuggle Elvis from Finland to Estonia.

- Now Petra and Svante went to the Kemi police to inform that the dog was now in Estonia. Petra and Svante stressed that, Petra’s dog was stolen and exported back to Estonia without any valid documents.

It is obvious that Elvis must have got limited exposure to people during his first months.

When visiting Monika’s home, we also recognized that the total home area was fence-in with high barriers.

The dogs were also kept in closed cages indoor, when taking them out for daily exercises; just a few could be taken out at the same time.

We also witnessed Monika’s difficulties to call them back afterwards.

According to my understanding, you should not keep dogs traced in cages indoor.

I also have problems to understand why a breeder travels a broad. Steals a dog and imports it to the home country without legal documents.

- Apart form the tricky situation with Elvis, we faced of course communication problems as either Petra or I understand Finnish, this could be sorted out by daily contacts with friends in Sweden who speak Finnish. Svante Lyngmark also which helped a lot.

- We received good assistance from the police in Kemi. As a final solution, they gave us permission to make use of anesthetic.

- This action was of course not needed as the dog meanwhile was stolen by the Estonian breeder, assisted by some scrupulous people.

Sign by:
Glenn Lundström

EU-citizen