Sunny Sunday

Sunday was sunny, can you believe it?  Two days plus one hour of sun in the 'afternoon' on Friday.  Even the kids were in a better mood.

I took Chestnut out for a walk, off leash, of course.  We went past the funny-looking cows, weird goats and strikingly normal deer at the animal preserve.  We went by the canal, which is actually attractive when sunlit.  Do I have photos for you?  No, because our camera was in NYC with M... bummer.  Maybe the sun will come out again this week, you never know.

Where was I?  Right.  The dog.  As I had left the boys at home to their own devices, I felt obliged to return home at some point.  We were out of the woods and back in our very densely populated little suburb, when Chestnut went into some bushes and disappeared.  I called out to her.  She did not come.  I saw a man that I had run into earlier, dog still in tow.  "Hast Du mein Hund gesehen?" (too frantic to remember to use 'Sie' with strangers, but he was young enough not to care).  "Nein", was his concerned response.  I went back toward the woods, getting more desperate.  She always comes back when I call her, unless there is another dog, but then I can usually see her.  I called Z on his cell phone to ask if the dog had somehow ended up back at our house (looking for me).

As soon as Z picked up the phone, the man came back and said (in English.  Everyone here knows I am 'the American woman'. ),  "Your dog...".  "Have you seen her?", I asked, desperately hoping for an affirmative answer.  "Yes, this way".  I followed and started to call her.  He said, "No, that won't work".  "Why? is she OK?".  "Oh, yes"...  I followed further, toward someone's backyard.  The 'someone' was standing over Chestnut with a broom, ready to strike.  I immediately saw why, and also why she did not return when I called her.  Rabbits. A pen full of them, scurrying around at top speed in a very limited space, making them way better playmates than me.

I have mentioned before that there are tons of Dog People here - but - they are not the only kind of people in Suchsdorf.  Of course, you think.  There are always Cat People too.  I myself, am  a Doat Person, liking both canine and feline critters.  Ah, but that is not the Other kind of people I am referring to.  For some reason, Suchsdorf attracts Rabbit People.  They are everywhere, and they have little hutches full of the rodents in their backyards.  

I don't think the Rabbit People like the Dog People quite so much, and in this particular case, I could hardly blame them.  How could they know that Chestnut just likes to chase things, that she is a sheep dog, and that sheep dogs are generally bred not to have a killer instinct (that could be bad for the sheep).

Broom-Rabbit Man's wife said, "Wo is die leine?", and I gave her the best I-am-a-stupid-American-and-I-do-not-speak-any-German look, which must have been good, because her husband looked at me and said, "Where is the leash?".  I sheepishly (hah!) pulled the leash from my pocket, hooked up the Dastardly Dog and muttered, "Entschuldigen".

How does one train a dog to stay clear of rabbits, I wonder?