A beautiful friendship


The internet can sometimes be magic. Because of the internet, collaborations are being created that could not have happened without the web, and you get to know wonderful personalities like Sniffer and Tinni, as well as the opportunity to help animals in a special way. The dog Tinni and the fox Sniffer met in a Norwegian forest and they are a perfect example that differences can be erased by real friendship. But are they so unlike as what first meets the eye?

Next year, the story about Tinni and Sniffer will be released in a book with many short stories well suited for children, but also stories for grownups who enjoy cute stories. There will also be a lot of facts about the fox, not to mention lots of pictures of Sniffer and Tinni enjoying each other’s company in the woods. Not many people are privileged to see and enjoy a friendship like this, but Torgeir Berge has both seen them in action and gotten the opportunity to catch this in images that don’t need words. Never the less, this special couple deserves their own book, mostly because we in this way can be the voice of the animals, help Sniffers own fox family and breed, and hopefully increase the knowledge for people who are not aware of how similar foxes and dogs actually are. And when the readers have finished reading the book, we hope that theY will have the same thoughts as us; why should some animals be in small, narrow, claustrophobic cages without freedom just because humans want to look good?

Sniffer and Tinni want our help to spread their message about fur and friendship, and the knowledge about that the fox is only a dog of the forest with the same reactions and movements as the dogs we look at as the man’s best friend. We hope you will buy the book when it’s being released in 2014.

No animals should be living like the animals in the fur industry are living. No one who has seen the pictures of Sniffer and Tinni, can think anything else. Hopefully the book about Sniffer and Tinni will give readers the same feeling, while at the same time they learn something about foxes and might get a different view of real friendship than they had before.

Since we all live on the same planet and all animals need the voice of the humans, the Norwegian book will also be translated into English.


Berit Helberg

Tause tårer-Snusen og Tinni


A date in the forest

Text: Berit Helberg

Photo: Torgeir Berge

The forest was silent this chilly day. It seemed like the nature waited for a winter that hesitated waking up. The frost had blessed the forest with a visit and given everything a thin, white carpet of stars, they glittered playfully in the early winter sun. A sun that was still giving a little heat if you found the right spots.

Somebody knew about the right spots, even without the sun. On this time of the year, someone had started hibernating deep under the ground where the frost never reached. The heat from the ant farm reached the ground and that was totally fine to use for the curled-up, brown-red bundle laying on the top of the ant hill apparently in deep sleep. But there was more to the fur than met the eye.

Trotting steps over frozen grass made the young fox lift his head and look in the direction of the sound. A look full of hope was looking around and you could see the fox smile in joy before he jumped up with his ears straight up. He left the ant hill with joyful bounces with an elegance not many animals could show. The thick, beautiful tail was stretched out behind him when he ran with strong bounds to meet his good friend. The "twofeet" beside Tinni, didn’t matter for the young fox Sniffer. He was used to the company.

The reunion was as always full of joy and happiness when the dog and the fox met with playful jumps and dance in the frozen grass. Side by side Tinni and Sniffer trotted slowly through the forest and made tight tracks in the white grass, showing how close the two friends really were.

Tinni og Snusen 3

Follow the project at facebook: Snusen og Tinni - Sniffer and Tinni

If you want to be notified when the book is being released, please send me your email  and PLEASE write the whole emailaddress. There are a few interested readers that never will get a notification, since only the first part is written and no @ follows...

For German version of Tinni & Schnuffi: Narayana verlag.

Please forgive me for not answering every one of you, there isn't enough time... Thank you for your interest in Tinni and Sniffer!