A Girl and Her Dog Named Hitler

I like stories about history. And stories about dogs. Getting both in one story while drinking my morning coffee is better than having a doughnut.

Could I resist this headline: "Papers: Hitler-mocking mutt dogged Nazis"? Of course not. The story only lasted through half of my coffee (much like a doughnut) but was as tasty as a chocolate mint.

It seems Tor Borg and his German wife, Josefine, in Tampere, Finland, had a Dalmatian-mix dog named Jackie who greeted people by raising his paw high in the air as Nazis did when crying "Heil Hitler!" This was not delightful to Josepfine, who hated Nazis. She started calling the dog "Hitler," which was not delightful to the Nazis.

What did the Nazis do about it? What Nazis did best--got spies to tell them the dog was mocking their psychotic little fuhrer, created 30 files, wrote diplomatic cables, considered destroying Tor Borg's pharmaceutical business, and in 1941 called the man in for an inquisition about his dog.

Borg assured them the dog was not named Hitler and that the paw raising only occurred a few times in 1933. The diplomats wrote to Berlin that Borg was lying.

In an American-made movie, pounding on the door in the middle of night followed by death and destruction would have occurred. Fortunately, it was real life in Finland. Apparently the overly zealous lower level diplomats were diverted in their crazed report writing by something else (the invasion of Russia, perhaps?) Tor and Josefine and the pharmaceutical company survived the war unscathed, according to the article by Kirsten Grieshaber in the Associated Press.

Tor lived until 1959 and Josefine until 1971. No report about Jackie. I assume he lived a long doggie life, well- fed, well-loved and posing for pictures wearing Tor's sunglasses as long as he lived.

Such a nice story.