Animals

Living outside the city of Frankfurt, we see many farm animals. There are chickens just up the path from our backyard and every morning and evening, two ponies get walked up the street in front of our house to go from their barn to a little pasture. There are larger pastures across the stream from our house where we see several horses. We also have mice, moles and shrews digging holes in our backyard. And you see dogs everywhere, of course.

This week, though a few funny things happened. Driving home from school on Thursday, we turned onto Haingraben and then had to wait for a duck that had wondered into the middle of the street. He waddled around for a bit, then stopped to take a drink out of a puddle, oblivious to our simultaneous impatience and amusement. He finally made his way to the other side of the street and we were able to s-l-o-w-l-y pass by him.

Yesterday, Micaela and I were walking home from the bakery when something caught my eye. On a side street, a woman was gazing into a shop window, as was the large horse at her side. They checked out something on display and then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk, both the lady and her horse, as if he were a dog. No one else around seemed to find this noteworthy. I thought it pretty humorous.

Guinness had his first vet appointment on Friday. Dogs and cats, and probably many other types of animals, need to have a "passport" in Germany, a booklet that lists all information pertaining to vaccines, microchips, addresses, etc. Guinness needs the passport before he can be boarded at a kennel. Looking through all of Guinness' paperwork frustrated the vet and she shook her head, saying, "Why don't they just do passports in America? It is so much easier than trying to figure out all these papers! The passport he will get today will be recognized all through Europe."

Also, his microchip did not scan properly, so he needed a new one. Microchips for pets are mandatory, unless they have a readable tattoo in their ear. But even the tattoo will not be enough in a few years and all pets will need microchips.