Today it’s exactly one year ago that I adopted my adorable Akita-Stafford mix Daisy the dog.

This so called problem dog never really was the problem. The problem were the humans. It didn’t take long for her to become the most popular dog in the neighborhood.

I hope to have a lot of years to come with her. Lately I purchased an old bike just to give her that extra challenge during our walks. Normally I hate biking but with Daisy it’s doable. It’s fun actually.

I wish you all a great day ahead! See you soon.

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After watching my video here I got a request for a picture of Daisy. Right, this is the dog in the video if you were wondering. Of course this isn’t surprising but I always feel good when I receive compliments on my dog, though I didn’t create her. She’s adorable all by herself.

Here we go! This isn’t the best photograph I’ve made of here but as it shows her in action I decided to pick this one to share with you.

The photo was taken two month ago in the nature park where I let her run every given day. It’s very convenient for me to get there as I just have to cross the street. It would be a shame not to make use of this situation an let this energetic dog run for at least an hour a day.

She lives with me for a little more than 3 month now and she totally stole my heart. But not just mine. I dare say that she is the most popular dog in the neighborhood. Everybody is shouting her name when we’re on the street. Even people and children I don’t know.

The reason for this is that my neighbors wife is walking her if I’m on a job somewhere.

Here are some details if you are interested:

She is a mix of Akita Inu and Stafford. I always say that she has the haircut of a Stafford. She’s one year old since August. She loves a lot to play with other dogs and she likes to take the role as a follower. Of course she has to drain her energy this is why I let her run on a daily basis, what is not just good for her but for me as well. While I walk through the nature and are amazed about her speed I get ideas for my blog and my other creative stuff.

But most of all I just enjoy being with my dog. There are two very important lessons I learned from her so far. And as she just has the possibility to teach me with her sole personality rather than words (she can’t speak, indeed) this lessons were much more effective:

1. Never give up!
   At least not after 25 seconds if she doesn’t understand what I want her to do. This is also true for many other situations in life.
2. Live in the moment!
   This is so often said and so obvious but since I have Daisy I really understand what this means.

Oh, did I mention that she sit down when I snap my fingers?

Enjoy your day!

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The last half of September, fairly late in the season. Yet there it was, a big raspberry. Because of the few hours of sunshine – my little garden is surrounded by other houses – it took of course a long time for it to ripen.

Every morning I looked at my raspberry; is it ready to be eaten? Alas, hopefully tomorrow, or else the day after tomorrow…
Every day I looked forward to that even more. This morning I watched it and knew instantly that today was THE DAY!

I was already pondering on which moment of the day the taste in my mouth would be as neutral as possible, so I could enjoy the sensations of my raspberry to the fullest. Of course not right after eating breakfast, nor right after drinking coffee…I decided to postpone the banquet for a while until later.

Suddenly Mario came walking in and we quickly decided we had to go to town. After an hour we were back, had a coffee and then Mario went off to his job.

30 minutes and a few sips of water later I decided that the taste in my mouth was neutral enough. Now my moment of joy has arrived, I thought. That it had been a sly combat, I discovered only when I neared my raspberry bush. Mister Blackbird had been casually roaming  my garden each day, preferably when I was miles away. He too must have kept a keen eye on the development of my raspberry. The moment I was about to consume my harvest, I was shocked to discover the remains of my once so gorgeous raspberry; only the small white kernel was hanging in the bush. Mister Blackbird sat innocently attending his feathers in my hedge, or was he laughing?

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Tomorrow is the day I was afraid of thirteen years ago. I knew that it would come and it nearly was the reason to decide against taking a pet. The reason to decide otherwise was that I always said that you shouldn’t mourn for the loss, but be grateful for the time you’ve had. However logical that sounds, it’s kind of weird and it feels inconvenient knowing that her day has come while she is downstairs

eating one of her last meals. I feel kind of guilty when she rubs her head against my hand when I pet her. Maybe it’s because I know that she is going to die tomorrow and she don’t. On the picture below you see a picture of my cat Upke. It was taken a year ago. She already had cancer then but she was wild and everything what a cat is supposed to be. So I decided not to sleep her in. Now it’s unavoidable.

First I thought about taking a final picture of her. But I can’t do this because this picture would always remember me on what is going to happen tomorrow. Gosh, I don’t like tomorrow. I can remember losing her sister Dupke 4 years ago. It was very sad.

Maybe it would be much easier if she was the cat of somebody else. But it’s not that easy. She’s the longest relationship I ever had, though it was like we lived along each other under the same roof. Sometimes it was annoying. She and her sister damaged things so now and then. The most expensive damage was when once one of them vomited into my television. In the end it didn’t matter.

I can’t remember who gave the advice not to write about your pet on your blog. Anyway I want to make Upke a part of the heart of this blog as she is a part of my heart. Maybe this all sounds like nonsense, but in the end nothing matters, except love.

I love you, Upke.

Bless you all!
Mario

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Lately it is a kind of a addiction for me to start stumbling with stumble-upon before I finally decide to go to bed. It’s like allowing myself a break of entertainment to finish the day.

Last week I stumbled over this post: The Bizarre Zoo In Argentina

After looking at all this pictures and reading some of the comments, some questions were rising in my head:

1. Is this real? If you know, please let me know. I’m very curious.
2. If not, is it just photo-shopped? OK, the medium sized lion on the car roof seems not be pasted into the photo. The second and the third with the big male lions looking pretty real as well, but I know that it’s possible that the girl and the guy are pasted into the picture. It would take some effort and very fine work to trick this, but it’s not impossible. When I look at the fourth picture, the two guys with the tiger, I see on the edges that it would not be that tricky to make one out of two photos, but the fifth with the guy behind the tiger, looks real. Especially if you look at the whiskers of this cat.
   I could go on for every photo, but see it for yourself here if you haven’t done so already.
3. Assuming that this is real, the question rises if this people are mad. As one of the commenter (completely right i.m.o.) says: Anyone who has had a pet cat knows that they will occasionally flip out and run around clawing at things/people. Imagine that but a hundred times bigger. In my experience being around big carnivores can be great, but just bear in mind that they can snuff a human without half trying, and they can do it faster than you can react.
   I can’t imagine that this people are not aware of the danger they are in. It’s really just a fraction of a second that a cat like that has ripped you apart. I remember a incident in a German zoo where a girl lost her arm whilst trying to pet a bear. It was just one hit with the bears claw and the arm was ripped of.

Do you think this is responsible? Personally I get the creeps when I see this nice woman sitting on the ass of the big lion. Sitting on my lap would be much safer, but that’s something else of course. Maybe you want to join the discussion at the original post or leave your opinion here. I would appreciate to read what you think about this.

Have a nice day!
Mario

P.S.: If you plan to go to the zoo I’m glad you keep it save.

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When we let Spikey out yesterday, Simone complained that I did not yet write a follow-up article about our little friend.

‘When you share the bad things that happened to him on the Internet, it’s your duty also to let people know when he is doing better’, she said.

I couldn’t agree more. After receiving private messages from readers who where sharing their sympathy with Spikey it’s my duty and my pleasure to share with you how he is doing now.

As you can see in the picture below, the wound where the big dog has bitten him is still visible, but it’s much better now. There was (is) a possibility that the fur will not grow back entirely. This seems as it looks now not to be the case. We will see this in a couple of weeks I guess. In fact I’m sure that it will be fine.

This was a short update on Spikey’s wellbeing, he and we thank for your attention.

See you soon!
Mario

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For those of you who are curious how Spikey is doing after the attack last week, here’s a brief update: As you see in the picture he needs still to wear that jacket. His wound on the right shoulder is getting better but he is scratching it because it’s itchy. For that reason Simone was so inventive to bandage his right rear leg (I don’t know if you describe it like that, it feels like talking about a car) so he will not open the wound again.

Two days ago he suddenly seemed very tired and slow. He was also shaking and had cold ears and a warm forehead (for whatever part of his head that may be). We were a little worried about that, so Simone decided to sleep downstairs to comfort him. As it looks now he will be OK in a couple of days.

I guess Mr. Spikey is very grateful for your interest and sympathy and says hello to all of you.
He’s such a good friend, even when he barks at me.

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Wednesday Spikey has been attacked by a big dog that broke through the fence, when he just was walking allong the backyards in the neighborhood at Simone’s place. Even when Simone took Spikey in her arms, the dog kept attacking Spikey.

Together with the owner of the much to agressive and annoying dog she drove to the vet, where Spikey had to be sewed and kept under narcoses for several hours. The vet said that it was pure luck that Spikey survived this attack. The deep wound was one millimeter from a vital vain.

I was very upset and angry about her neighbor and of course shocked when she called me in tears. Though she told me that Spikey may not walk around the neighborhood without a leash and she thinks it was her fault as well (she is sharing the vets cost with the owner of the other dog) because she had let him walk without a leash, I think that there is no way to blame her. It’s not because Simone is my girlfriend, but because I see it objective:

• Spikey would have been attacked by this beast even if he would have walked on the leash. The fact that the other dog kept attacking when Simone had Spikey in her arms proofs this. Thank god, she hasn’t been bitten.
• If the neighbor has to compensate something by keeping two large aggressive dogs in a small house, it’s his choice. However, he has to make sure that the dogs cannot escape out of his fucking backyard. In the same way the dog could have attacked (and maybe killed) a small child (there are many in this neighborhood) instead of Spikey.

I would have call the cops and claimed the complete vets cost instead of sharing.

Am I the crazy one here? What do you think?

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Since long I am able to write another article in my animal category. Alas, it’s a sad one and I’m a little bit behind the news, but I wasn’t able to go to the zoo in Emmen (Netherlands) to make footage myself.

For those who missed it: Annabel, a 45 year old elephant of the zoo, fell into a dry moat when two other elephants were playing. She couldn’t come out of the moat by herself , so the zoo staff tried different times to help. In the end they had to bring in a crane to lift her out. When every attempt to get her back on her feet failed (Annabel was in shock), the veterinarians and the zoo staff decided with pain in their hearts to put her to sleep. In an autopsy a couple of days later they found out that her neck was broken.

A day later a heartwarming scenario took place at the spot of the moat where the accident happened. The other elephants gathered together and were looking for the dear old lady. Here’s a video where you can see and hear them mourning:

Rest in peace, Annabel!

Mario

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I felt that there were two reasons that made my videos on the NaNoWriMo Viddler Group from last year different compared to the videos I uploaded this year so far. This year they miss a little bit of this, as I want to call it, adorable-factor. Last year animals where involved in my video’s all over the place. So for example I took my rabbit Bob hostage and threatened to eat him if I wouldn’t make the 50k in November. Of course no animal was harmed during November 2007 and neither any animal will be harmed this year. I don’t even eat the flesh of rabbits, because I would feel guilty eating a pet. On the other hand there is a chance that they are eaten by me if I’m not aware of it. If they are shredderd through a dish or something. You could call it accidental pet eating or something like that. But again: I don’t eat pet’s. I couldn’t imagine to say to my girlfriend after the dinner: ‘Oh dear, didn’t taste Bob delicious?’

It all began with my cat Upke interrupting my introduction video a couple of days before the start of NaNoWriMo 2007. This was followed by the sisters Gerbill (I’ve got 4 of them) who were digging in their tank in the background whilst shooting one of my wordcount videos. Guess who had more attention, my wordcount or the sisters. Right, my word… the sisters Gerbill. Understandable!

This year I have mixed feelings with NaNoWriMo because I dislike the most important thing of the whole event: my novel. It’s not spellbindig. Every problem is solved far before the story really begins. With other words: my novel is effing (<- no bad slang for someone from a foreign country, isn’t it?) boring. Therefore I take my novel this year much less serious like the one I wrote last year. This gives me kind of a bad feeling, because I feel it isn’t really fair to the people who are as serious with their novels as I was last year. Maybe I’m just a little weird to think so, and the reactions I got on my video of Day 24 so far proof that I am wrong. I am weird but don’t have to feel guilty.

I hope everyone will stay motivated for the last days. Here is my wordcount and animal video of day 24:

See you soon!

Mario

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