This veterinarian couple’s house is home to 29 pets—and an aquarium in the shower!

The first impression of the house wasn’t very convincing. It was the end of June 2006, and Teppo and Suvi Heinola had come to see a small log house in Kangasniemi, Finland. The logs had turned yellow, and inside, a red brick wall together with pine walls and floors created a cozy, cabin-like atmosphere. The day was scorching hot, and the yard’s flowers were in full bloom. From the edge of the sloped lot, a view of Lake Iso Häppälä opened before their eyes.

The Heinolas’ home is deep in the woods, and the distances to anywhere are long. For the children especially, the internet is an important way to stay in touch. “Twenty to thirty years ago, this would have been quite a tough place to live, but now all the information and contacts are on your phone,” Teppo says.

Suvi and Teppo met in the 1990s at the University of Helsinki, where Suvi was a veterinary student and Teppo was a teacher. They started their own business together in 2015.

Nearly 20 years later, the home and yard have undergone a complete transformation. The seven pet sheep roaming outside have long since devoured the pretty flower beds. All that’s left is a small fenced garden next to the root cellar. A half-hectare area of the property has been sectioned off, where the family’s dogs Metku, Amalia, Häxan, and Tintti can run free. Part of the large garage has been converted into a chicken coop, the residents of which also roam the yard all summer.

“The animals aren’t fenced into a small space—it’s us humans who are,” says Teppo.

Teppo and Suvi take it for granted that animal welfare comes first. They are both award-winning veterinarians who work together at the clinic they founded. Living and working with animals is a dream come true for them.

Both discovered their love for animals in childhood. Teppo grew up surrounded by animals and was allowed to have any pet he wanted, as long as he took care of them. In addition to a dog, the family had fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, lizards, and a chinchilla. An Airedale terrier called Amanda was the most important of all.

“We had a swimming pool, and I think I could have gotten a crocodile if I had just asked,” Teppo jokes.

Suvi got her first pet, a dwarf rabbit named Nöpö, when she was school-aged. That only made her want more animals. After buying their shared house, the family has had all kinds of pets—horses, rabbits, ducks, and tiny Mignon ducks. Not all of them were able to live in the garden safely, partly because of hawks.

“I lived to the age of 40 thinking that no number of animals would ever be enough. But when I got my latest dog, Metku, I realized this might actually be enough,” Suvi laughs.

Knitting has always been special to Suvi. About six years ago, she realized the yard had room for her own flock of sheep. Now there are seven, and Suvi knits with yarn spun from their wool. The lead sheep, Laikku, gets a scratch from Suvi.

Suvi and Teppo have a Facebook group with 34,000 followers, where Teppo uses humor to share his work as a veterinarian, his thoughts on animal welfare, and a glimpse into the family’s daily life

On the family's large, fenced yard, Metku and the other family dogs can run freely. “Dogs can easily feel that the indoors is just a big box, so they really need plenty of space to move,” says Teppo.

In the bathroom, there is a custom-built aquarium with pygmy catfish, dwarf rasboras, pearl danios, black catfish, and a bristlenose pleco. Teppo has kept aquarium fish since he was young.

It's okay if the sofa gets damaged

During the earliest years, Teppo and Suvi worked on the house and yard nonstop. The pinewood got covered with white paint. The bathroom gained more space when the remodelers removed the indoor sauna. The house began to reflect the family’s style.

“We wouldn’t have the energy for that anymore. These days, everyday life is more about just getting through,” Teppo says.

Teppo learned early on that if you have pets, you shouldn’t buy a sofa you’d be upset to see damaged.

“Animals are animals, and our home is set up so they don’t have to tiptoe around anything. Over the years, pets have gnawed on walls and rugs, and they’re allowed on the sofa.”

“We designed both our home and our animal clinic with practicality in mind. Not every choice is made with every detail in mind, but they work,” Suvi adds.

This shows, for example, in situations where there’s just no time to walk the dogs—they still have plenty of room to run in the yard. For the sheep’s hay bales, Teppo built a feeder out of an old trampoline. There’s also a unique feature in the bathroom. The idea came from Teppo, who worked in a pet store in his youth and has kept aquariums ever since. Pygmy catfish, dwarf rasboras, pearl danios, black catfish, and a bristlenose pleco swim in a custom-built aquarium in the shower space.

They’ve made caring for the animals as easy as possible. Teppo estimates that on weekdays, each species might only need 15–20 minutes, but usually all their free time goes to the pets. Walking the dogs takes one to two hours a day, shearing the sheep and cleaning out the shed is a multi-day task, weekly aquarium maintenance takes an hour, and Teppo says you can spend “as much time as you possibly want” with the chickens.

“This is a choice we truly wanted to make. If there isn’t enough time to start with, running a mini zoo like this is definitely not the right decision.”

The adults bear the main responsibility for the animals, but the kids Helinä, 15, and Arttu, 13, help by feeding the chickens, changing their water, and collecting eggs. Their job is also to walk the smaller dogs.

“The kids are extremely good at handling animals because they’ve lived in a pack their whole lives,” Teppo says.

Each family member has their own designated dog. They arrived one at a time, learned to get along, and eventually formed a functional pack.

“A pack follows the same rules as a family. You have to support each other and follow shared guidelines.”

The yard is like a second living room

For Suvi and Teppo, family, animals, and nature create a home. They spend as much time outside as possible. Suvi might sit by the root cellar, watch the lake, and dye yarn at the same time. She uses plant- and mushroom-based dyes, which can be produced from natural materials and kitchen scraps like avocado pits and peels.

Teppo fishes for perch and pike from the lake.

“The yard is like another living room to us. Being outside together isn't interrupted by social media or messages,” Suvi says.

In summer, the whole family and the dogs sometimes take ten-kilometer walks. Sometimes, work is on their minds even then, and they think about animals from morning to night.

“Teppo and I can look at veterinary medicine from different angles, which is an advantage. We are both strong-willed and have learned to live with that. We can disagree, but it doesn’t slow down our teamwork,” Suvi says.

Unlike their busy, social jobs as veterinarians, Suvi and Teppo enjoy their own bubble at home, usually just the family. They rarely have visitors because everything is far away: the children’s school is 20 kilometers away, work is 40 kilometers away, and the nearest store is 16 kilometers away.

For Suvi, relaxing means knitting on the sofa while listening to an audiobook. They originally got the sheep for this hobby, and now Suvi is a partner in a spinning mill.

“I have to admit, it did go a bit overboard,” she says with a laugh.

Cooking, on the other hand, is mostly Teppo’s job, although the children are also interested in cooking. On weekdays, their late dinner is a time when everyone gathers without phones. On weekends, they eat breakfast and lunch together.

After that, Teppo might jot down thoughts for a Facebook post on his tablet. Their Facebook group, Eläinlääkärit Suvi ja Teppo Heinola (“Veterinarians Suvi and Teppo Heinola”), has 34,000 followers, where Teppo uses humor to talk about his vet work, animal welfare, and a bit of family life. Those texts have been compiled into a book called Eläinlääkärin elämää (“Life of a Veterinarian”), which will be published in May.

Suvi and Teppo want to give their animals the best possible living environment. In her arms is Pörrö the chicken. The family’s oldest hen lived to be 13. “I believe a chicken roaming outside is happy when it can bask in the sun and look for worms.”

Over the years, the dogs have left their mark on the house’s structure and furniture in all sorts of ways. They’ve scratched door frames, gnawed on chair legs, and wrecked deck boards.

Sleeping in the lakeside sauna

A year and a half ago, the parents decided the children could have the two upstairs bedrooms totaling 40 square meters. They thought about building a small cottage in the yard for sleeping.

“Then we realized we already had one: our own lakeside sauna,” Suvi says.

The small log cabin included a sauna and dressing room, plus a main room big enough for a double bed. The sauna and dressing room were combined, and a panoramic window was installed. The two large windows in the main room also face the lake.

The couple moved into the lakeside sauna during the toughest years of running their business.

“At that time, it felt wonderful to sleep in such a place and let our minds wander,” Teppo says.

“We had lived in the house for 17 years, but I had never seen the lake just as I woke up. It’s a little luxury of life to walk with my dog to the lakeside cabin at night and stop under the old pines,” Suvi says.

Suvi and Teppo sleep in the lakeside sauna.

Airedale terrier Amalia and Pomeranian Tintti love the freedom of the yard. The house and yard are a never-ending project for Teppo and Suvi, with no shortage of chores.