1.6.1997 -16.6.2005 - He is terribly missed.

Nipsu is a couch potato, agitator, rascal, hunter, sweetheart and my warm water bottle at night, all in the same package. He keeps the eyes and ears of my other dogs clean, and would clean their teeth too if they'd only let him... He gets along with everyone, absolutely loves to meet other dogs, and loves to watch tv with me. He's a little rascal given a chance, but cool as cucumber when he feels like it. He's very flexible in his moves and likes to challenge other dogs to wrestling matches, and then overwhelms them to retreat acting like a little whirlwind - it takes time to learn to match him in full-body wrestling. He has an excellent sense of humor and he loves to climb up the lap of all visitors if allowed (not that he much asks in advance...). 

He is brindle, sort of a tiger pattern, very seldom seen in longhaired dogs in this part of the world, but you see that for example in Whippets, Great Danes and Greyhounds. He is about 60 cm at withers which makes him a very big Silken. He is one of the healthiest dogs I've ever met, he's never needed a vet due to illness, and a chiropractor I take my dogs to at least once a year has never found anything wrong, and says that Nipsu has one of the healthiest skeletons he's seen in years. Nipsu is a talented courser, both skilled and enthusiastic, and it is a pleasure to watch him in action. He even went BIF-2 at an unofficial lure coursing event against some of Finland's best sighthounds loosing only to a Saluki.

After seeing silkens also in US specialty I've come to the conclusion that he is very close to my ideal of a silken. I especially love his head, but he does not have a single serious fault anywhere, and you'd have a hard time finding a small flaw, either. He is of such a great quality I truly hope he will pass it to his offspring, I would not mind seeing him in the future silkens.

Nipsu came to Finland in August 1998, when his breeder Francie Stull came to Germany to bring 3 first Silken Windhounds to Europe. I took advantage of it and flew over to fetch Nipsu and meet Francie at the same time. I had first seen these small longhaired sighthounds over the internet in mid-90's but never had I thought of actually managing to get one, but just dream. In the spring of '98 however a borzoi friend from Sweden, Sussi Stjernborg, casually mentioned in a totally unrelated email that she was indeed getting two of them, and the breeder was planning on travelling here (well not here, but a lot closer) herself. At the time I only had one young borzoi, Omppu, and I was about to start looking for another borzoi to keep him company, so this crazy idea popped into my head that instead of a borzoi I could have a Silken! Immediately I emailed Sussi and overwhelmed the poor woman with questions. She promised to help me to get in touch with Francie, who turned out to be one of the most knowledgeable and nice ladys I've ever met. She trusted me with one of her dogs without knowing me more than what she had learned from a couple of emails and knowing that Sussi knew me to some exent so I probably wasn't all bad. So she told me what males she had and let me choose from photos and her discriptions of their characters. I have no idea why I actually chose Nipsu, I just had a feeling he would suit me and Omppu, and that feeling turned out to be more than just correct.

Nipsu was very shy with strangers when I first saw him in Germany, after all he had just flown the long trip from Texas to Germany, it was his first trip outside the ranch and outside his pack where he'd lived for over a year. But it was clear that he only needed time, he was so happy and curious about everything, including me, that I knew that his shyness could be worked with easily. So off we flew back to Finland and home, where he immediately decided to make me a nervous wreck by sneaking under the yard gate the first time I turned my back on him, and ran away to Helsinki central park were he trotted around avoiding all people for almost 3 weeks, probably in search of Francie. I chased him in the woods for 8-18 hours a day with my dad's cellphone always close to my ear, placing flyers everywhere I could think of, lost over 10 kilos and a lot of sleep, but eventally found him under one balcony of an apartment house. Nipsu decided he didn't like to run any more, or maybe he remembered my voice he had heard in Germany for four days, I don't know, the main thing was that he was back with me again. After a vet check we returned home and could finally start our way together. I made sure that he could not  run away any more, and he settled to that soon. In a week or so he was totally content with living with me and Omppu, and nowadays I don't think it would pop into his mind to run away, he's totally committed to me (well, rabbits are probably worth a small detour...).

After the flying start he's been a great ambassador to this new breed here in Finland, and he's really made the breed known since then. The breed is nowadays recognized amazingly well around Finland and even around Europe, and gladly 99% of the comments are positive. It is something that has been missing in the sighthound world so far; it's smaller than any of the longhaired sighthounds, but it still is a full sighthound in character. Whippet and Italian Greyhound are nice in size, but many are afraid of the short coat in this cold climate. Borzoi and Afghan have coat, but they are BIG (and taking care of the coat of an Afghan Hound properly requires a certain kind of commitment). Silkens are small and coated, with absolutely gorgeous disposition and seemingly good health and longevity, so they do fill a niché, and do it well.

Nipsu is the father of one daughter in Sweden, Starcastle Hounds Firelizard, 'Lizzie', born March 22nd 2001 to 'Omni', Kristull Omniscence. He also has three sons with Kristull The Surprise, one in Finland and two in Sweden. Here in Finland he has one daughter Adeina and two sons Airk and Asrai with Kristull Alyssa, the pups were born in May 2003.