Meet Ivo. A very rare breed -Norwegian Lundehund

You know what they say when boy meets girl. The next thing that happens is diapers, a house, Volvo and a dog. This happened to my best friend. Only to skip the diapers and Volvo part. He is now a dog owner. And what a character it is.

Having grown up with dogs myself, they are special individuals to me. Much more so than cats or other pets. I could go on with stories on our Vorsthers, enough to fill a book, but that would have to be another time. Maybe with a little help from my mom it could be interesting.

Say hello to Ivo!

I must say I haven't been so enthusiastic on a pet project in a long time. This guy is charming! Still a puppy but boy he has grown since New Years when I first saw him. And a lively little bugger he is. I can easily visualize baby sitting this little rascal any time.

Norwegian Lundehund (puffindog)

This breed was almost extinct after world war 2. Only a few species was left due to puppy sickness (a result of the war I guess). Today there is around 1000 individuals left worldwide. Around half of them here in Norway. It has its name after its special traits namely to hunt for Puffins (lundefugl). And it shows!

It has developed anatomical anomalies to aid its speciality and to deal with steep cliffs, narrow passages –the habitat the puffins come to hatch their offsprings.

–Two extra toes

I find this so cool. To deal with the terrain, it has two extra toes:

To understand why, you have to know something about the habitat of the pray. The puffins thrive on the cliffs and steep hills of the islands on the west coast. This is from Værøy:

Image: Wikipedia

Puffins were hunted both for meat and for their feathers. And stories of these hunts go back hundreds of years.

So no wonders some sets of extra toes came in handy.

To top that, they can also close their ears. I wish I could sometimes.

A unusual piece from me. I just fell for this little rascal.