And off she goes!

And off she goes!

Today Cara & I made a huge step forward.

We went to the park where we met up with the group of people we usually walk with once or twice a week. There are always about 4 to 8 dogs and it’s a lot of fun to chat with their owners.

Cara has only once been off-leash and this one time didn’t go too well. For the past couple of weeks she has always been on her 65ft leash.

Tonight she was very active, she was running around crazily, fetching all the sticks I threw and played with the other dogs. Especially with this one dog, Puppi. When the two dogs ran into the trees in a zigzag I just let go of the leash. We have practiced this before when she was about 5ft away from me. I let go of the leash, call her, she comes towards me, gets a treat and I take the leash again.

But this time she didn’t seem to hear me. She and the other dog ran toward a little steep hill that is placed in the middle of the park. I called her again but the two dogs were gone. Unfortunately, right behind the hill is a street.

Scared for Caras life (I already saw her crash into a car as it was dark already!) I called for her again. The owner of the other dog also called his dog. Nothing moved.

All of a sudden, on the other end of the hill I saw a flashing red light, a light like Cara has on her collar. The light grew bigger and bigger and there she was, galopping towards me, her ears flying. I knelt down and she ran into my arms and almost threw me on the ground. As we have trained, she sat down immediately and waited for me to praise her. And I did! I stuffed a handful of treats into her mouth and hugged her close to my heart.

The other people told me she was great and when I asked for how long Cara was gone, they replied ’30 seconds, at most’. It felt like minutes!

Writing about this still makes me all teary, I always knew my dog is awesome, but THIS awesome?! How do I deserve her?

Something that is making me worry though, is her eye condition. On Wednesday we noticed that her eye is really red and watering. It has gotten better but it’s not all gone yet!

Cara scaring us

It has been going well with our new dog. I taught her how to sit and lie down and she isn’t pulling anuymore while on the leash. She also knows to come here and we are training her how to wait at the moment.

I had a lot of friends visiting and they all admired and adored Cara especially when she began pulling those cute looks and staring at you with her large puppy eyes.

But it has not always been that easy going. There are days where she ignores me completely and I am calling her name and running after her like a fool in the park and there are days where she escapes into the brushwood while on the long leash (20 metres), and gets caught up in there so that I have to crawl in the dirt on my knees, branches scratching my face.

But I still love her. That’s why I was about to cry when Cara happened to be really sick on Sunday. She had a very bad stomche ache and was whining all day long. She was fine while I slowly stroked her stomach, but as soon as I stopped she was wincing and cranking her back.. It hurt seeing pain in her eyes and the sound of her restless nails clicking the floor made my ears ache.

She was constantely at my heels and begging me to sroke and cuddle her. And I just couldn’t say ‘no’ to her pleading eyes so we spent the whole day on her pillow .

I made her some tea and on Monday morning she was much better, it still frightened me though, up to that day I didn’t know how much she means to me already.  

sickl Cara seeking support

Eating healthy

It was in the summer that my mum and I had one of our lovely ‘eating healthy’ discussions – but the other way round. Usually it’s the mom telling her child to eat their veggies but with us, it’s different, it’s me telling my mum to make me some veggies.

I know it sounds crazy but I love fruits & vegetables.

That day I decided I had to change my eating habits, knowing that my mum won’t support me (year for year I was poking in my meals telling her I’d rather go to bed hungry than eat my peas and now she isn’t motivated anymore to make us anything healthy) I started to google and stumbled across this blog written by a young girl who has been eating raw for almost a year and is feeling great.

I spent the whole night reading her blog, jotting down notes and decided eating raw is what I wanted to do! It just felt right.

I started the next day and slowly I adjusted to my new lifestyle.

School started a month ago and lately I became quite lazy and ate for supper what my mum made and yeasterday we had another of those earlier mentioned dicussions and my mum told me to eat 100%  raw for one whole week and then she’d think about cooking more vegetables.

I accepted the challenge and here I am eating the yummiest raw zuchhini spaghetti in the world!

(and by the way, I am feeling as good as never before and simply by adjusting my eating habits I lost 3kg in 6 weeks and I never had to abstain from anything!) 

Cara Mia!

A few weeks ago i had one if these cliche "dream-come-true"-experiences: my dad finally gave in and allowed me to have a dog. 

Ever since I was little I wanted to have one. Every time I saw one on the streets I ran to pet it, every time i saw a little puppy i simply had to cuddle it. 

But my dad always made clear that he doesn't want me to have a dog.  
I don't know why but when we asked him that night (once again) he simply said "fine". 
Bewildered with excitement I went to the animal shelter with my mum and I already saw myself walking out of there with a dog walking next to me. 
But under these hundreds of dogs there wasn't a single one, I would have considered calling mine. Most of them had behavioral problems or didn't get along with other dogs/animals. 
I was so frustrated that I almost gave up. But that's when my mom found a tiny announcement on the Internet that talked about a private shelter with a picture of a scared looking dog that reminded me of a cow. 
Against my will, she asked if the dog could stay at our house for one day, to see if she fits into our lives. 
She doesn't. But we fell for her. 
I don't know if it was smart to keep her but I adore her and I am willing to invest a lot of time into her to make her a well mannered and well behaving dog. 

It's been a little over 3 weeks since she spent her first night at our house and she is absolutely wonderful. She sits on my lap and I stroke her and rub her belly for hours, she already knows how to sit, lie down and walk correctly on the leash. Only 3 weeks ago she pulled me through the park. 

(both photographs by my incredible friend Denise)

Trapped

Today hasn’t been a very good day. I woke up in a very bad mood. On those days, usually, I go to my favorite Starbucks Café, sit in one of the cozy chairs with my Moccha Frappucino, stare out of the window and let my mind spin. Afterwards I normally feel much better.

But when I arrived today, I saw, that all of the coxy chairs were taken. Bad omen!

I ended up sitting in one of the hard, wooden chairs, sipping my Frappucino. There was no window and my mind wouldn’t spin as always. That’s why I left Starbucks in a bad mood.

I paved my way through the mass of people, constantly bumping into someone (or someone into me). I wanted to say sorry but people didn’t even look up, didn’t seem to notice, just kept walking.

I was waiting for the train. The train station was crowded. The air smelled of cigarettes and sweat. Birds everywhere. My train arrived and I squeezed myself through the doors, elbow to elbow with a dozen other people. Quickly I took one of only few available seats. Right before the doors closed an elderly woman made her way into the train, leaning on her cane. All of a sudden everyone else was staring out of the window, pretending to not see the woman.

Have people always been this rude and ignorant?!

I gave her my seat and she smiled at me thankfully. 

People were standing in front of the doors when I had to get out. Somehow nobody heard my "excuse me, please" and nobody moved an inch. I literally had to shove people aside to get out. 
Confused and angry, I went home. 
I walked slowly through the little streets, passing hooting cars with enerved drivers, rude bycicle riders that didn't care to ring their bike bell, walking past unfriendly neighbours that didn't bother to smile back or say something. 

I feel trapped in this busy, fast world with its unfriendly and rude inhabitants. Right now I am wishing for nothing but wide open spaces so I can avoid people that don't bother to say they're sorry after stepping on my toes.  
I want to leave Europe in the fall, get away from the busy life and enjoy some nice days somewhere in the countryside. 
Any ideas?

Adventures in Germany & Croatia '12

Going to Germany always feels like coming home. Knowing, that there is someone waiting for us to arrive, always makes me really excited.

I spent the first couple of years of my life in Germany, I grew up surrounded by really nice people with funny accents and ate the most delicious foods, like the Thuringian sausage for supper.

I never noticed how beautiful Germany is and how characteristic most of us Germans are; until we moved.

Now we go back twice a year and we stay with my aunt & her family. We grew up together and she is more to me than just an aunt.

We didn’t really do much that is worth jotting down, it was really hot and we prefered to stay inside the cool house. I went to walk with her dog 3 times a day though, Sally & I took very beautiful, long walks.

And we cooked together every day. 3 women, 1 kitchen, many ideas means a lot of different dishes!

It always makes me sad when we have to leave again, I love Germany, I love the people living there and I love my aunt & uncle and their children!

We went back home in order to re-pack because only a few days later we left for Croatia.

The drive to Croatia was long, we were stuck in a traffic jam at the border to Croatia for 2.5 hours! Out of boredom I started waving at children in the cars next to us, I made a lot of new friends that day, haha!

We all were so glad when we finally arrived at Porec. Porec is a tiny city at the coast.

We immediatley unpacked and explored the town. It is such a charming place to be!

It was a very nice trip, we always had about a hundred degrees and I sure got tan.

This happened by accident but I like it a lot!

On a ship to a town that was once led by Pirates

Soil in Croatia