About meMy name is Carola Furu-Högel and I live in Nevas in the southern part of Sibbo, which is located east of Helsinki. It is about a 40-min-ride by car from Helsinki downtown here. I live here with my family, husband Peter, and my three children Alexander, Jonathan, and Caroline.
I've been breeding cats since 1995 under the Bifrost's and dogs since 2000 under the name Kieferhof's. Both cat and dog breeding are dear hobbies for me. As my job I keep a boarding house for dogs named Carowart and founded in 1999.
In 2005 I graduated as Canin consult from Borgå Folkakademi. My study program a.o. included ethnology, problemdog behavior, and doglanguage all in all 670 hours. The study program also included an Obidiance trainer-course by the Finnish Kennel Club. The education was very giving and interesting in many ways, and has helped me a lot as a dog breeder as well as a keeper of the pet hotel.
My cats, ...I got my first cat, Mishca in 1987. My first Norwegian forrest cat, Mingo was born in 1993. Mingo was the progenitor our cattery Bifrost's.
Currently I have six cats: Gili (Gilrain Felis Audax), Bill (Bifrost's Diane), Leevi (Bifrost's Tizian), Lassi (Bifrost's Michelangelo), Pysen (Dunderkattens Bilbao) and Spotty (Dunderkattens Biarritz). Bill, Lassi, Leevi, Pysen and Spotty are all breeded by me while Gili is mother, grandmother, great grandmother or great great grandmother to every litter except for the Robber's daughter litter.
...my dogs...In 1997 I got my first Hovawart, Zenya. She is the progenitor of kennel Kieferhof's.
Currently I have two dogs at home and two co-owned living elsewhere. My dogs living here with me are Vapsu (Kieferhof´s Chick Bostica) and Loppan (Damirazin Ainutlaatuinen).
... and NetteNette, our very dear familymember is has now passed away. We got Nette in 1996 when she was only a tiny little lamb. Later, we also got a boy lamb, Nico. Nico and Nette lived in their cottage on our backyard and walked around on our property with our dogs and our children. In 1997 Nette got two black lambs, Anton and Alma.
When Nico died in 2003, we thought that Nette won’t survive by her own. However, we were wrong. Nette became very social and joined us unleashed on the walks with our dogs. She actually seemed to believe she was a dog, since when meeting other sheep, she would rather stay with the dogs than with the other sheep. With the puppies in our household, Nette was very strict and taught them to respect sheep. With the kittens Nette was a bit gentler.
Nette’s favorite place was potten, a pool close to our house, because there she often got tidbits and there were all sorts of flowers to eat. She also liked to pluck mushrooms and berries in the forest.
In the beginning of November we noticed that Nette’s appetite wasn’t as good as normally. We took her to a veterinarian and it turned out that she had water in her stomach. We realized that she hadn’t got too much time left so we took her home because we had made a promise that she would not have to pass away in a strange place. When we got home, she ran up to the cliff behind our house and refused to come down. When the weather got worse and the winter was on its way, we thought that it wasn’t fair to keep her anymore. On Wednesday 17 of November 2010 our beautiful and unique sheep Nette passed away while having a view over the forests where she used walk around. We miss her so and are thankful for getting to have her for such a long time with us. Now she’s buried at potten under a birch.
Thank you Nette for everything!
Photos on Nette can be found in the Kieferhof's gallery.