This article will be about meeting my dog, the best buddy and also the most famous dog in the world. He is called Punta and his name has many variations which depend on his behaviour – if he’s good boy, I call him Puntíček, Punťouš, Puntíhlava (in English Puntahead), if he annoys me, he’s hairy monster or Puntislav 😀
Punta is nearly 11 years old dog, mongrel including some shepard, husky and also chihuahua. Nobody says him that age because he is really vital, strong and happy dog, a lot of dogs of lower age can envy him that. He (of course 😀) loves good food, walking and when he sees that I’m packing my bag for some longer trip, he’s completely crazy because what he loves the most are our long hikes in nature. And also fact, that he can sleep with me in sleeping bag in winter 😊 Everyone always loves him because he is very friendly, loves all the people and female dogs 😀
Completely tired dog - after 3 days and 100 kilometres in our legs 🙂
Nobody knows about his destiny, only thing I know is that he was living couple of years alone in High Tatras (the highest mountains in Slovakia) and in the end of this article you can find links on Slovak newspapers because Punta was something like a mountain celebrity). He was travelling from hut to hut, going with people on hikes and also riding a train. People tried to catch him a few times but he never wanted to get caught, pulled out of the loop and when they tried to get some sleeping pills into his food, he hid himself so cleverly so they can’t find him when he was sleeping.
Until that fateful day…
With my former girlfriend we wanted to go to High Tatras, under the challenge „Conquer Tatras“ we wanted to go to 2 mountains – Jahnaci stit and Vychodna Vysoka. For these days I planned hike from Tatranska Lomnica through Zelene pleso, Jahnaci stit, Velka Svistovka and Skalnate pleso to Zamkovsky‘s hut, where we wanted to spend a night and second day through Mala Studena dolina Tery’s hut, Priecne sedlo to Vyhodna Vysoka and then to Sliezsky hut to Tatranska Polianka. Weather was great and first day in the evening we got to Zamkovsky’s hut as planned and spent a night there.
Second day I woke up about 6 AM and because kitchen didn’t work that early I went to do some cofee and breakfast on a stove. When I got out, I saw some small dog running here. Because I love animals, I wanted to pet him but he twice got back. Third attempt was successfull and the dog was very pleased and happy. He sat to my legs and didn’t move away from me, even though there were other people walking around us. When he went with me to the toilet, waited for me and really warmly welcomed me when I returned I was expecting that he will go with us. But he had also some wound on his neck, we cleaned it and got some hairs from it – dog didn’t like it at all but fortunately he understood that we wanted to help him 😊 We asked some stuff from the hut whose the dog is. Answer was, that he travels between huts and he was probably a mountain guide in past life.
Than we packed ourselves, got away and Punta was really going with us. I thought that under Priecne sedlo (it’s a mountain saddle where goes really steep rocky path and there are some chains for people to help them climb up) he will turn back. But Punta jumped on rocks like a chamois, still continued with us and didn’t move from our legs, especially mine. We asked also a stuff on Tery’s hut, if they don’t know anytnihg about the dog and they told us that he may be from Slezsky hut. We were talking that if he doesn’t have any owner and will go with us down to the car we will keep him, respectively I will keep him because gilfriend had two dogs already. That days we were going to start living together in Prague so I was joking that we will pray to flat owners to rent us some flat because we will have 3 dogs 😀
On Sliezsky hut they told us that Punta is a wild dog which goes there sometimes, so it was done – if he goes with us, we will take him and see. Punta went with us to Tatranska Polianka where he was enormously scared to get into the waiting room on train station because I had to get the car which we left in Tatranska Lomnica. I think that he was beaten when he got inside to the hut or somewhere else. When I arrived with the car, other problem took place – we saw that Punta wanted to go with us but he was completely scared to get into the car. Finally, Gabrielle somehow got him into her arms and we were ready to go. Than we stopped on Strbske pleso for some food and Punta went to the kitchen in the restaurant because he was sleeping while I left to the toilet, than woke up, was looking for me and just ran into wrong door 😀
Punta also wants to be fit so sometimes he does exercises with me 😀
From that day Punta has his home, full bowl, his own lair and if I don’t go somewhere to the glacier, climbing or via ferrata, I take him with me everywhere and have the best buddy 😊 And when I bought him his lair for my birthday in 2020, for which he was greately happy, or when he was unpacking christmas gifts, I really shed a tear 😊
First time in the lair
It’s funny that after few weeks I had Punta, my dad sent me link on some newspaper article with question – Isn’t that Punta? And it really was Punta – he was called Bobik and roamed in Tatras for a really really long time.
In this article there was written that there is some rescue initiative for Punta so I wrote to newspapers that Punta doesn’t need to be rescued anymore and already has loving home. Redactor persuaded me to cooperate on other article about Punta and a day before Christmas 2020 he created another article – about Punta’s happy end.
It’s hard to tell what Punta’s adventures were, how he can survive in winter, how many times he met bear, wolf, lynx… Bullet in his left groin shows that his life wasn’t easy all the time but now he is really happy and cheerful dog who really enjoys life and I hope that he will be with me for a long years and we will have a great time and lot of adventures together 😊
