So..."Auntie Emily" got stuck with her friend's problem child dog for the night. My friend is out saving the world by meeting a transport van from Romania with street dogs to be saved and I get Mickey. Mickey is also an ex-Romanian street dog and my friend's fourth rescue dog. She has a penchant for eating doors, door frames, couches, pillows and assorted other furniture items if left alone for longer than five minutes. You've heard of "It takes a village to raise a child"? Well, it takes half of medieval Regensburg to keep Mickey from eating the rest of her human mama's apartment. She gets passed around from various people (including myself) from 8am to 6pm due to that whole "not five minutes alone" thing. She loves it. In fact, I think she planned it. She's smarter than all of us. Once she escaped from one of her "Aunties" in the park. She crossed two bridges over the Danube, went through the medieval town and made it to her human's apartment. Which, by the way, requires going through TWO coded gates. Her neighbour called my friend, who was at work. By the time my friend made it to her apartment, she got a call from work...Mickey had shown up there. By the time she got to work, she got a call from another friend because Mickey had shown up at her medical practice. That's where her human finally caught up to her. The last place had comfy dog beds and cookies (and someone who wasn't afraid of finally grabbing her and making her stay put). It was like she was playing Goldilocks and three Bears but instead of trying out different beds, she was making her way across various locations in town. Like I said, smart dog. I have mixed feelings about Mickey because (1) she tried on multiple occasions to eat Brogan, (2) she's tried on multiple occasions to eat the other two dogs I'm dog-sitting Auntie Emily for and (3) I'm afraid as soon as I fall asleep tonight she's going to eat my couch, chew through the door and go partying at the discotheque down the street where the other delinquents hang out. When I asked my friend if my couch was safe she said..."I think so.". Sigh. On the bright side, two old, tired and sad Romanian street dogs are going to be safe, warm and loved for the first time in their lives tonight and by next Christmas will probably be happily eating someone's couch themselves. Here's Mickey and another of my occasional charges, Fritzi. Don't be fooled by the innocent looks.
You absolutely tell the best stories, Emily. Mickey sounds like such a character (code of parents everywhere - animal and human - for "nightmare" haha). Godspeed, good lady.
Wow what a great dog. Hope the couch survives and if Mickey makes it to the Disco I really hope he has a great night! Happy doggie sitting xx
Poor Mickey is keeping a VERY close eye on the door. Now I'm more worried about the door than the sofa.
Wow! Good luck.....you do like a challenge. And write a fab story! (he does look as if *butter wouldn't melt.....*
Loved your account of Mickey's escapades. And he does look as though if anyone opens that door a crack he'll be off! (Or he's waiting for you to drop off so he can munch a dog-flap.)
Just wanted to let you know that Miss Mickey (she's actually a girl ) was a complete angel and slept through the night with no door or sofa munching. She even stopped crying and staring at the door around 11pm. And I know from her human that the whining and crying is something she does every night when she is home as well. Knowing Mickey, I've no doubt that she's thinking, "No, you humans are not my overlords - I did quite well before you kidnapped me from the streets and plied me with soft beds and fluffy toys! And don't you know a girl needs a night out on the town by herself now and then to feel her oats?". When she settled down, I tried to get her to cuddle in the bed, but she wasn't having it and installed herself in on the living room rug instead. Now I just have to get her out for a wee before she decides a corner of my little flat would do just as well as the great outdoors. But to be fair to her, that's on me if she can't hold it and I'll clean it up without being upset. Her person takes her out at midnight every night and with -4C temps and the wild hordes outside my door having a bit too much mulled wine at the Friday night Christmas markets, that just wasn't happening on my watch last night. Bad Auntie Emily! On the other hand, Good Auntie Emily has a fab walk planned this morning - I really miss my Saturday morning wanders with Brogan so plan on taking full advantage of having a doggie companion to bumble around with. Thanks for sharing my "Night of Hurricane Mickey" with me.
Phew glad it went ok. I had similar worries when my friends old boy stayed for a few days. He has a grade 4 heart murmur at type of stomach cancer a now in his old age a bit leaky. We had a great time despite me worrying about him. He is adorable like Mickey.
Just got a call from my friend. One of her Romanian dogs made it on last night's transport van, but the van with the second dog got stuck on the border. All the dogs are OK, but the transporter won't make it in to Regensburg until after midnight tonight. Which means... ONE MORE NIGHT FOR MICKEY TO EAT MY SOFA! Nah, just kidding... she was very well behaved last night so I think she'll be fine. I think. Unless this was all part of her devious plan to lull me in to sense of complacency before she makes a break for it. I better hit up the dog bakery down the street to have something exemplary to bribe her with... ...unless THAT was her plan all along. Gosh, it's hard taking care of a dog who is smarter than I am.
Ooo... that is scarier. Mickey might eat the furniture, but I'm fairly certain she's as healthy as can be and could possibly outlive me. The ones with health issues get me seriously worried. I kept a dog for a friend once for two weeks. The dog was diabetic so needed injections every 12 hours. I did great with injections (I was so worried I would mess it up) but apparently she got better food and a lot more exercise with me. Which meant that about 10 days in to her stay, she was in fact much healthier and didn't need the same amount of injections...which I continued to give her like clockwork because I didn't know any better. As a result, she went into diabetic shock in the night due to medication overload and I had to take her to the emergency room. It was terrifying and I felt horrible that I'd nearly killed her. She came out of it fine and ended up living to a ripe old age, but I still get the willies when it comes to dog sitting dogs with health issues. My friend's chihuahua has a small problem with her trachea, so I'm like a hawk making her eat everything in tiny bites and not too fast. Fingers crossed, nobody is going down on my watch!
Oh Emily,your report on Hurricane Mickey has made me chuckle,what a character! And you are a legend for helping out your friend xxxx
Thanks, but she's actually the legend. Kind of a pint-sized dog-rescuing ninja warrior, in fact. Her dog rescue group is like the little engine that could... they don't have the resources to help hundreds of dogs, but they just keep plugging away. She had a transport van from Romania come in about two years ago and she recruited everyone she knew to come help wrangle dogs off the van when they arrived. Unlike this time, with only two dogs, that time her group took in about 25. I'm such a mooshpot and cry at everything anyway, but I tell you, there were some big burly men helping out too that day and everyone had "dust in their eyes" seeing these dogs come out of the van one at a time. In fact, Miss Mickey was on that transport, though I don't remember her that from that day. She was in foster care for 10 months and was finally adopted by an older lady in town. How'd she end up with my friend? I asked my friend to take Brogan and I car shopping one Saturday summer before last. We pull into a Toyota dealer, get out of my friend's car and there in the parking lot is Mickey. Now this is unusual because (1) there are NO stray dogs around here and (2) my friend immediately recognised Mickey as one of "her" dogs. We immediately got back into the car, with Brogan in the back and Mickey on my lap (imagine that... she's not small!). My friend drove to Mickey's house, where eventually we found the lady, who grabbed Mickey and whacked her over the head with a stick and dragged her by the collar back into her house. My friend started crying, then talked to some neighbours who had seen the whole thing. Apparently the lady, who seemed like the sweet grandmotherly type, was anything but and Mickey got hit and escaped a lot. So my friend (and you'll see in a minute why I'm not using her actual name), goes back two days later. With reinforcements. Cases the joint, sees the older lady isn't there, climbs the fence like a ninja warrior, and finds Mickey in a cage outdoors in the back garden. Which is an explicit violation of the adoption contract. So she takes Mickey back to her flat (to this day I have no idea how she got her out of the cage and back over the fence). And proceeds to hide her from her landlady, her neighbours, the old lady, the old lady's son and the flippin' POLICE for the next SIX MONTHS. Not that the police cared too much, apparently they've got bigger fish to fry and have also dealt with my friend before so know the score. The case winds it's way through court until both sides drop the charges (one charge of trespassing and one of animal abuse). My friend tries for another six months to find Mickey a good new home, all the while Mickey is showing up every week with a new home-made collar, harness, coat, etc. I thought, "That dog is going NOWHERE". My friend cries over every potential adopter until one day she says, "this is my dog, end of story.". So this is why even though I joke about it, I really don't mind at all being part of the village that takes care of Mickey.
Ah we need a movie to be made about Mickey...please write the screen play Emily,imagine you,your friend and Mickey all on the red carpet....that would be the best movie premiere ever! X
It would be rather dramatic! Did I mention my friend weighs about 90lbs soaking wet? She's a very unlikely ninja warrior. I'm still on stand-by Mickey duty by the way. The transport van broke down on the Hungary/Austria border so the poor pup is STILL not here yet. One got here Friday night, and the other one has been in the second van all this time even though they left at the same time. They have food and water, but CANNOT be happy pups stuck in crates all this time. The scary thing is that four of the dogs in the second van are slotted to go to rescues in the UK, so they have even a longer voyage. So fingers crossed that they get the van fixed and through the Austrian border crossing very soon.
