15. Kalas-Tommy - wanted dead or alive

Finally something interesting happened! 😄 This is gonna be a longer post than usual, because of Kalas-Tommy, the farm dog.

So I arrived in Tallinn, checked into a hotel, and realised one hour later that my credit card was gone. Damn.

After searching through all my belongings twice, I made an desperate attempt to retrace my steps back to the harbour.

There it was, right next to my footprint where I accidentally stepped into a patch of soil. Shining brightly in orange. A miracle that it was still there.

Credit card in hand, I could finally explore town, and ended up at a really fun bar with chess players, where I improved my european tour score to 2-1, and redeemed myself from the loss in Finland.

I left Tallinn pretty late next afternoon and went east along the coast, until I had to stop and camp in the countryside. A friendly farm couple refilled my bottles, and told me it was ok to camp in the area. So I went down a small farm road nearby to find a secluded spot, until the road got too small and the grass too high. It was at that spot I met him.

At first I thought it was a fox, but then I realized it was a small dachshund. It stood in the middle of the road, camouflaged like a loaf of bread, and watched me silently. Then it took off out of sight into the vegetation, and I decided to not go any further down that road. Maybe there was another farm down there, so I went back to a place I had seen 100 meters back with some big oaks and set up camp.

I had just had time to pitch the hammock and sat down in it, when the dog suddenly appeared again from a different angle, barking wildly. It was acting like it was four times bigger than a loaf of bread, even though it wasn't. It was getting late and I had no desire to move, so I just let him bark until he stopped.

After 10 minutes of solid barking it decided to waddle over to me to have a closer look. It smelled my hand, the bike, all of my bags, and then accepted a bribe of three small pieces of smoked snack sausage, and I could finally zip up my hammock to get away from the mosquitos.

Kalas-Tommy after being fed.

He then went under the hammock and climbed the small stone wall on the other side, so he could have a look inside of the hammock.

The wall.

We looked at eachother for less than a minute, and then he JUMPED like a madman into the dense bushes on the other side. It caught me by total surprise, and I heard the crashing of stones and broken branches as he landed somewhere on the other side.

For the next 10 minutes, I could hear him walking around aimlessy in there. He is so tiny, so the bushes must have been as dark as the Amazones by night for him.

Finally he found his way back to the wall, but realised it was too high for him to climb it from the other side. So he did the only thing he could do. Sit down and cry like a puppy.

It was obvious that he wanted me to help him back, but should I? Just a little bit earlier he was yelling at me, the intruder, and I had no idea of his mental stability. Maybe he was hurt after the jump? Would he bite me if I grabbed him at a bruised part of his body? But he continued to cry, and I had no other option. I went out of the hammock, stepped over the wall, took a firm grip with both hands around his chest, and airlifted him back to the other side. And then he was rewarded with some more sausage.

Kalas-Tommy after the rescue.

He then turned his back to me, laid down like the Sfinx, and I realized that he had now switched sides. I was no longer an intruder. Now he was guarding me instead, like a personal estonian guard dog.

All was fine and well for a bit, and I had time to ponder on what to name him, and settled for Kalas-Tommy. But then the sun went down, and the shouting competition began.

Another farm dog far away started to bark, and then another, and then Kalas-Tommy. This went on for a ridiculous long time, hours, and my ears were starting to hurt since he sat just next to my hammock. F-n Kalas-Tommy!

Eventually I started to google how to make a dog stop barking, but found no good solution. So instead I tried Google Translate to find how to say 'Quiet!' in estonian. The word 'Vaikne!' didn't help, but I had more success with saying 'Tasa!' in a progressively higher voice. At 11pm the 'tasas' finally made him stop.

He had at this point spent 4,5 hours with me, and I wondered why he was still there. Didn't he have a home to go to? His eyes were sad and he seemed like a lonely dog, but he was physically healthy and didn't look homeless. Then we both fell asleep.

When I woke up this morning he was gone, and I hoped he had returned to his home to have some breakfast. I packed up and went back to the same farm couple I met yesterday for a second refilling of the bottles, and told them about the encounter with Kalas-Tommy.

I thought that the farm lady would be amused upon hearing it, but instead she had a frown on her face, which puzzled me until she told me why. She knew the true and sinister history of Kalas-Tommy's past.

Last year the farm couple's beloved cat was hunted down on the field between their property and the neighbour's - an old man who lived alone with his 8 malnourished and feral dogs. The cat never stood a chance against 8 dogs, and was found dead on that field the next day.

The couple called the authorities, who arrived to collect and euthanize the 8 dogs. The man was also forbidden to own dogs after the incident. But the authorities were only able to find 7 of the dogs. Only one evaded capture.

Kalas-Tommy.