I am Elina Lappalainen and my husband is Mikhail Metlikin. I’m from Finland, and Mikhail was born in the Far East of Russia, near to China. We live with our little daughter, Julia, in Finland, in a town called Hyvinkää, which is located about 50 km from Finland's capital Helsinki. We have five dogs, three Italian Greyhounds and two Greyhounds, who are true members of our family. You can find more information about our dogs on their own pages. Moreover, there are a lot of photos from their everyday life in our gallery.

I fell in love with sighthounds in my early childhood, but for Misha a way of life with dogs was something new when we met. The first sighthound in my life was a whippet called Ali - Veinmootin Caesar. He was owned by my mother, but lived with my grandparents not far away from us. Ali was born a few years before me and died on my birthday in 1984 at the age of 13 years. He was a deeply loved family member who still lives in our memories. I was not allowed to have a dog of my own in childhood, but instead I had different kinds of smaller pets and even a horse. Moreover, I used to take out for a walk the dogs of our neighbours. I have always been a true friend of animals. I met an Italian Greyhound for the first time in my life at a dog show in 1993. It was love at first sight!

We had the first Italian Greyhound litter in 2004. The prefix Mirondan was accepted by FCI in 2005. Breeding – it’s a hobby for us, so we will always breed on a very small scale. Our aim is to breed healthy and beautiful IGs with good character. We hope you enjoy visiting our site! :)