8 (4967) 52-93-53
8 (903) 192-0-192 (ìîá.)
russian | english
Julia’s New Year Adventure
A fairy tale about a Bernese mountain dog for children and their parents (part I, II, III, IV)
This story took place in a town situated near Moscow where a united family of marvelous dogs that are called Bernese Mountain Dogs lives. Yes, you heard everything right; these dogs have such a queer name. But between you and me, there is nothing strange about the name of these dogs because they are of Swiss origin and there people don’t speak Russian that’s why they call sheepdog sennenhund which means pasturable dog. These dogs are amazingly beautiful. They always wear dress-coats with white bosoms and white gloves, have ginger socks and white boots, and have delicate manners. Bernese Mountain Dogs are conscientious in their duty to serve a man.
But let’s get back to our Bernese Mountain Dogs. In
the family I am going to tell you about a Mother
lives, her two grown-up daughters by a previous
marriage, a steady-going family dog and a little
she-puppy Julia by name, but her owners often call
her Jool’a.
Jool’a is a charming creature, everyone loves her: her owners, Mom and Dad, both her elder sisters, but they are all grown-up and Jool’a is just a puppy who wants to frisk, to toy and dream and even fantasize. Mom always tells Julia about her grand-grand-grand-grandmother who is a Fairy. Once a year on New Year’s Eve she can fulfill a wish, but Mom doesn’t remember the spell calling for the Fairy. Julia is very fond of listening to Mom’s stories about the Fairy. It turned out that Dad also knows about the Fairy because he comes from Germany which is not far from Switzerland. Somewhere there not far from these countries there is a fairy country Sennenhund Land. The Fairy lives there, in Sennenhund Land. She used to come to Dad in his childhood and would tell him fairy tales but he didn’t tell her his wish.
Jool’a wished to see the Fairy so much that she set
her mind on not sleeping on New Year’s Eve but
whispering all words that could call her. So, a
long-awaited night came. The Moon was huge and
round, the night sky gem med with stars, even the
air was fairy. And there Jool’a whispered spell
words as if someone murmured them in her ear.
Suddenly the biggest star started going down from
the sky and when it touched the ground Jool’a saw a
beautiful Kind Fairy. There was a bright star
instead of a crown on her head, her eyes were so
kind and tender that Julia stood motionless being
absolutely happy. She was ready to stand just
looking at the Fairy all her life never asking her
anything.
Kind Fairy smiled and hugged Julia.
- Hello, my dear great great granddaugther. I was watching you from your birth and think you deserve fulfilling a wish.
- Kind Fairy, you are so good and beautiful! I met with you and that was my wish, so it has been granted.
- Oh, Julia, Julia, my dear great granddaughter. This night I am going to reward you with a trip to a fairy country Sennenhund Land. Do you want to visit it?
- With the greatest pleasure, my dear Fairy!
- Now let’s clean your black dress up, refresh your white dickey, clean your ginger cheeks and paws and put on your neck my gift. It’s a tiny fairy star. Now you are ready to visit Sennenhund Land.
Kind Fairy touched Julia with her tail and off they flew… Julia didn’t remember the flight well as she shut her eyes tight in fear.
- “Here we are, in magic country Sennenhund Land,”
the Fairy told Julia, “But you may stay here only
for the New Year Night and tomorrow I will see you
home. Well, I won’t hinder you.” Saying it Kind
Fairy disappeared. Only after a while Julia opened
her eyes and saw beautiful world. There was a magic
palace and many little houses in a fairy snowy wood.
There she saw two sennenhund puppies of her age who
were running towards her. Both of them had bells on
their necks. Wagging their tales the puppies
introduced themselves to Jool’a. They were King’s
son Troy (with a blue bell) and King’s daughter Gute
(with a pink one). Both the puppies vied in offering
Julia various games to play, but there their mentor
Ordnung put in a word:
“Kids, don’t you know? First of all Julia is to be introduced to the King and then you are to learn a special dance for today’s magic ball. Julia, you are also invited to the ball. Everyone who comes to us at New Year Night has the right to be present at the ball. Many wonders happen there and today’s ball isn’t going to be an exception.”
Julia was so wholly at a loss that she was able to speak only when they came to the palace. The fairy palace was decorated with garlands, candles, and there was a great Christmas Tree in the middle of it. The Christmas Tree seemed to be glowing and sparkling. Because of the Tree Julia even didn’t see the throne where the King of Sennenhund Land was sitting majestically. Troy and Gute led confused Julia to the King, she made a curtsy (her granny taught her how to do it) and bowed. The King got up from the throne and came up to the puppy.
- Good day, child. I have known that you will come to our country and be our guest. You are sure to see many wonders at today’s ball. And now let Troy and Gute and their mentor Ordnung show you the country.
Julia bowed again and went outdoors with her new friends. There they could bark a little and wallow in snow, run in snow banks and catch snowballs as ordinary dogs do. Having had enough fun the puppies run to view the neighbourhood
At first they saw sennenhunds shepherding cows that had big bells on their necks. The sennenhunds greeted Troy, Gute and Julia grandly and the puppies returned the greetings. Julia recalled that once she had seen a picture with cows and sennenhunds on the wall of the owner’s house. Julia’s Mom told her that many years ago sennenhunds shepherded cows in faraway country called Switzerland. Jool’a asked to shepherd the cows herself and she was allowed to do so. The puppy started to run around the cattle herding the cows. When the grown-up sennenhunds commended Jool’a, she felt very proud: she was a real sheepdog. Then the herd went in the direction of the farm and the little friends ran further.
Soon they saw wooden carts with milk cans moving from the farm in the direction of the palace. To her great surprise Jool’a saw that sennenhunds were harnessed in the carts. Julia saw in the owner’s house pictures like these but she had never thought she would see something of that kind herself one day. The puppy wanted to ask for permission to take part in such an interesting occupation but mentor Ordnung said that only grown-up sennenhunds were allowed to carry carts. Puppies could only train, gather strength, get hard and when old enough to carry carts. Jool’a compared her height to size of the cart and understood: she was to grow up a bit.
Ordnung led the kids to the gym. There puppies of all ages were taught different dog intricacies. Our friends were to learn a special dance for the ball. Julia learnt the dance with ease. She had always liked to jump on hind feet waggling her tail. Troy and Gute were also good pupils. Soon the dance was learnt very well and the kids could have some rest. Troy and Gute invited Julia to a café to have a snack before dinner at the ball. Most of all she liked ice cream and gingerbread that looked like bones.
In a while it was time Julia started to dress for the ball. She set her black dress (sennenhunds are prohibited to wear dresses and dress-coats of different colour), combed her hair, smoothed the bosom and put on white gloves. Ordnung paid a compliment to Julia and said:
- Do you know, my darling, that many years ago our King had a very close friend and once before a regular ball he declared: “I have no wish to be as the rest sennenhunds in black, I want to be different and the most beautiful one. I want everybody worship me”. He invoked an evil magician and sold him the black dress-coat. Instead of it he got a brown surtout and ability to control malign forces. Since that time, once a year he comes to the ball and tries to do something evil. So, beware of Brown Sennenhund, Julia!
Troy and Gute had already known about Brown Sennenhund but it was a nervous moment for Julia. But the kids calmed her and all of them went to the ball in the palace.
There were many sennenhunds in the palace. All
sires were wearing perfectly fitting black glossy
dress-coats. All dames were wearing elegant hats and
each of the puppies had a colourful bell on their
neck.
The most part of sennenhunds were slowly dancing on four paws, some were making conversations. The puppies couldn’t stay serious and were running among the dancing pairs.
Suddenly music went off and the King went to the center of the ball-room. He was majestic, noble and powerful. The King was different from the rest sennenhunds with a very good head. Julia was petrified, she saw that the King looked like her father.
- “There is no wonder” - whispered her the King, - “your father is a dog of our royal ancient lineage”.
- And now, dear my dear friends, let’s see New Year greeting from families, puppies and after that we’ll ask our magicians to show some New Year wonders.
And the show started! What a show it was! Every family appeared in garbs of their own, all of them danced and presented everybody with nice presents. Julia was so happy that didn’t stop rapping her tail on the floor. Then both her friends and she danced the New Year dance. She was having a good time and was so merry that didn’t want stop dancing. Last time she was so happy with her brothers and sisters at leaving ball after which the puppies moved to new houses to their owners. Since then there was no such a fun in her parent’s open-air cage. And now Julia walked on air. She decided to go out, she didn’t want anybody notice her crying for joy.
But as soon as she went downstairs something strange happened. In a few seconds Julia understood what had happened: somebody tucked her into a sack and was going somewhere. The poor thing tried to cry and call for help but everything was in vain: the orchestra was playing loudly, everybody were dancing and laughing, so no one could hear her. Having got a nasty bang on her head Jool’a lost consciousness and recovered to her senses in a cave. Brown Sennenhund was sitting enthroned there, huge abominable half lizards half dragons were crawling around him.
- “Hello, Julia, I have been waiting for you for a long time” - said Brown Sennenhund. – “You are of an ancient royal ancestry. You will be offered a sacrifice to the evil magician and my power will be trebled. I’ll conquer all sennenhund world! There will be neither black dress-coats nor black dresses any more! I will free sennenhunds from these conventionalities and they will be able to wear dress-coats and dresses of all colours of all styles! They will worship me for it”.
- “Oh, no!” – cried Julia – “My dad has always been proud of our distinguished colour. No member or our family will want to deviate from sennenhund standard”.
- Bosh! You just won’t understand, I’ll free all sennenhunds!
- But we won’t be sennenhunds! We’ll become plain dogs without our nice black dresses and dress-coats.
- No, you will be free dogs and I will become the head of free dogs. You won’t depend on man any more.
- But dad has always said that sennenhunds can’t live without man, God created us to help man, that freedom spoils any dog, it becomes wild and aggressive and can even attack man. No, sennenhunds are sure to refuse from the freedom you offer. Now you just grudge that we have so beautiful tricolor dresses and you sold your black dress-coat and now have to wear a brown frock coat. You just feel aggravated.
- What a nasty girl! How dare you to speak in such a way with me, Brown Sennenhund? Be ready, I’ll come back in half an hour and start the sacrifice ceremony.
At first Julia started crying, then began to bid
farewell in her mind parents, sisters and her
beloved brother Dobrik whom she hadn’t seen for a
long time because he lived in another city. At that
moment she heard somebody’s whispering: “Call out
for Dobrik’s help. I’ll show him the way here”.
Jool’a immediately started to repeat in a small
voice: “Dobrik, Dobrik come here, help me out”. All
of a sudden the cave filled with smoke and Dobrik
came out of it. The puppies flung to lick each
other.
- “Julia, our great grandmother Kind Fairy came to me and said that you were in trouble and she also taught me how to overcome Brown Sennenhund” - said Dobrik in an underbreath. – “Only together we can defeat his malice by kindness and love. He whispered magic words to Julia and dodged behind the ledge”.
Next moment both the black heart and his servants huge lizards came into the cave.
- Let the sacrifice ceremony start! Julia, stay in the center of the magic circle, face me and say thirteen times: “Evil, everything evil come to me”.
Standing in the center of the circle Julia began to say loudly: ”Good, everything good come to me!” Brown Sennenhund was almightily angry and started to gnarr and tried to throw at Julia but couldn’t out step the magic circle because all good that had been called by Julia protected the little brave sennenhund. When the brown black heart intended to say next words from the spell Dobrik jumped out of his hide and slipped a magic muzzle on Brown Sennenhund so that he couldn’t utter a word. After that Dobrik rattled off magic words that Fairy had taught him and in the end added: “Only good, kindness, love and friendship can always live. Evil is doomed to death”.
When Brown Sennenhund heard those words, he cried like a little child and begged forgiveness. The kids forgave him and at that very moment Brown Sennenhund became black as the rest sennenhunds and the lizards turned little and kind. Former Brown Sennenhund said:
- Now I understand that you were right. I won’t be malicious any more. I will leave fairy country Sennenhund Land. I am going to wander over the world and tell every sennenhund I see about good, love and kindness and how evil can be cunning. Fare you well! Don’t remember evil!
Julia gave Dobrik a hug and they cried a bit. The puppies were over the worst and they merrily ran back to the ball. Everybody was having fun at the ball and nobody noticed that Julia had been away for some time. The puppies decided not to tell anybody about the experience and joined the rest senenhunds enjoying themselves at the ball.
At that time in the palace all sennenhunds started to reel round the Christmas tree and magicians began to do wonders. Some celebrants came up to the magicians and asked to grant their wishes. Those were kind magicians and they fulfilled all good requests. A wave of a wand and an aggressive dog turned kind, a sad one turned merry, a blushing bride got a fearless groom, and a misbehaving puppy became obedient. So soon there was no dog unhappy at the ball.
Suddenly music went off and the King invited all guests to gather round the festive board with all kinds of delicacies. All sennenhunds were given their favorite beverage – kefir, the King delivered a holiday speech and lavish feast started. The puppies made a great feast and run to play under the Christmas tree. Their games were very energetic and funny. Julia, Dobrik, Troy and Gute made good friends during the evening and decided to ask their owners to take them to the biggest dog shows. Besides a fairy country Sennenhund Land, they can see each other only there. The kids were going on laying plans for the future but there the Fairy appeared.
- My dear puppies, New Year night is coming to the end and you have to go back home. There is a minute left for you, Julia, to say good-buy to your friends. And now, hold my tail, let’s fly home.
Julia closed her eyes again and opened them only at home in Moscow region and saw that Kind Fairy was waving a farewell from afar.
Stretching and yawing mother and father as well as elder sisters went out from dog’s house. Julia was eager to tell them about her fairy-tale trip but at that moment the owner went out and started to give breakfast. Naturally all the family turned to eating. Only Julia was had a full belly, she had had a great feast at the ball… While all members of her family were eating, the puppy decided to lie down and fell asleep. Jool’a was dreaming about a beautiful fairy country Sennenhund Land.
Petukhova Lyudmila and Bashkirova Alexandra
translated by Sorokina Natalia
If you use any information from this page you must
place a link to www.bernerhouse.ru and the name of our kennel!
Information
If you use any information from this web-site, please, place a link to www.bernerhouse.ru and the name of our kennel
Bernese mountain dog puppies...
Chernookaya Krasotka iz Bolshogo Doma got CACIB and became BOS at "Eurasia-2-2007"! Congratulations!
Best kennel in show - kennel "Iz Bolshogo Doma" - two years on end at "Eurasia"!
Julia’s New Year Adventure (a fairy tale about a Bernese mountain dog for children and their parents in four parts) is available in English now! Read it here.
Puppies for sale! To see more information about the litters click here.
Best Kennel at "Eurasia-2" 2006! More info...
Best Kennel in Show!Judged Satu Yig-Monoonen (from Finland) - owner of a well-known kennel "Riccarron". More info...