A Little Brilliance

After the excitement of a celebrity sighting, and the crush of mobile shopping at Saturn after work hours, I had a brilliant idea and bought Diego a blinking glow in the dark arm band from the bike shop. I strapped it around his neck and now he blinks and blinks as he runs around Mon Bijou in the darkness at 7:45pm.

Ordnungsamt

I have never felt like someone who breaks the laws, or who fears the police. In the US, I usually felt that the police were here to 'protect and serve.' The meter maids are just pains in the asses, but I don't fear them.

But here in Berlin, I am scared.

There are fine ladies and men who rule the parking meters in Germany, and they are called Ordnungsamt. These are the people that get you if you violate order or rules on the German streets. And as you guessed it, there are a lot of rules on the German streets. And everday, I violate a couple.

I am still a newbie here, so I will cover just one area where I come in contact with the Ordnungsamt, and where I seem to constantly break the laws: in the context of my dog.

- All dog owners must pay a Hundesteuer which is an (annual?) dog tax. This can be anything from 75- 120 euros for your first dog. I have been convinced by Harald, a guy from my office who has Daly the Jack Russell Terrier, not to bother with this tax. They fine you 10 euros for not paying the tax on your dog; it makes more sense to avoid paying it and to get a fine every so often I am assured.

- Dogs in Berlin can be off leash but must be within 1 meter of owner. I'm not sure if this is a real law because the friendly Ordnungsamt can give you a ticket for having your dog off leash period, I think. Once I had Diego off leash and was walking down the street talking to my friend Richard in English. Richard turned to me and said that an Ordnungsamt had just tried to approach me to give me a ticket but when he heard me speaking English he turned the other way. I looked over to see him crossing the street.

- Dogs cannot be off- leash in a park. They give you tickets for this too. Today when I got to the park, on my bike with Diego running beside me, this guy Marvin told me that I just missed the O's who would've certainly slapped a ticket on me. I think the off leash ticket might be 20 euros.

- There is a list of dogs that are considered dangerous in Germany and therefore get special laws. A pit bull or a staffordshire terrier must wear a muzzle in public after the age of 7 months. The dog can also take a strict obedience test and be exempted from wearing the muzzle. Then does the owner have to walk around with a certificate or something?

- You must pick up your dogs shit. I do this religiously, so I feel self righteous and law-abiding.

Still, I am a rule breaker and I am not proud.

But I also want a nice life for my dog, so I will put him on a leash in the city, but I will continue to let him run wild in the park where there are no people.

The Big Chase

Diego give Jamil the Saluki a run for his money. They ran 3 times around Mon Bijou park jumping over people and using the entire park are their track. It was hilarious. If you look closely you can see me with my blue bag. This video was shot with a camera phone.

I will try and stop posting so much about Diego. How dull!

Dogtown

Just as Virginia is for lovers, Berlin is for dogs.

Diego the Labradoodle has come to Berlin with me and is making his mark. Sure he pees on trees and bushes and marks things that way, but he also is warming the hearts of Germans all over the city.

Diego comes to work every day with me, much like in the US. But now, instead of sitting in the back of my 'carpool-chic' station wagon, he leads the way-- off leash-- to work.

Sometimes we walk, and sometimes I ride my bike. And Diego, a reformed leash-puller, trots down the street, stopping when I yell his name at intersections, and sitting once he reaches the street. Good boy!

He's new at this off-leash thing though, and he's had some run ins to which I will confess here:

- barked at Japanese couple canoodling in Mon Bijou park after dark. I was riding my bike, and he ran ahead of me and barked at them and scared the shit out of those two. 残念!

- on a sunny post-work walk through Mon Bijou again, he ran up to some homeless guys who were making a meal of a sausage and some booze, and promptly sat in front of them until they generously gave him a chunk...ok 2... of sausage. danke!

- going up the elevator at work, the doors opened at the 3rd floor (4th floor for you Americans out there) and he barked, I mean really barked, at the cleaning woman in her hijab. Diego, as I've learned, is afraid of people wearing hoods, and this poor woman's head scarf flicked that horrible switch. Entschuldigung!

I do hope my list does not get any longer. Of course, when he misbehaves, or looks like he is going to misbehave, I put him back on the leash and make his Sit and Down a couple of times.

ok, so bad behavior aside, as I mentioned, Berlin is a dog's paradise.

Today I will tell you about our favorite Mon Bijou park. Mon Bijou is along the Spree, and conveniently located on our route to/from work. So everday, we pass through the park. I've made a number of friends there: Dwight and Yago, Claudia and Jamil, Ian and Fritz, Mel and I can't remember his dog's name, among others. Some of the people speak English, and some I just smile at. (in the photo, Diego is playing with Sloanie, Jamil, Bonbon and Hara.)

There are a couple of question people always ask:

1) girl or boy: most people in Germany don't 'fix' their dogs, so there are often the 'balls' issues and dominance.

2) is he castrated? yes, he was neutered, and he is proud of it. related to question #1

3) how old is he? I'm not sure why they ask this. Just to make small talk I think. And it works, I chat back.

4) and the ubiquitous 'what is he?' Mostly they think he is a funny looking poodle, but then they find out he has a dumb name like 'Labradoodle' and the laughs start. He is really playful and runs super fast, so he is making quite an impression with the dog owners. I hear them saying, 'oh this is the dog I was telling you about.' And friends of people I work with always say 'so THIS is Diego.' I rarely hear 'oh so this is that great American girl you told me about.' (Perhaps they whisper it in complicated German so I don't understand.)

So the dogs aren't fixed, and so there are exciting dominance issues, girl dogs in heat, and fun stuff like that. Did I mention that having a dog off leash in a park is illegal? More later, I'm off to the dog park, I mean the park.