Adventures with Kramer

We had the great privilege of watching Kramer, a beautiful Golden Retriever that belongs to our friends the Stocketts. It was fun to be able to take him around the city and get a feel for the love that Austrians have for dogs.

Some memories...

The first day we had Kramer we took him to Justin's baseball game. On our way to the game, we had two very elderly Austrians give a ton of attention to Kramer...and then we had a "conversation" telling each other about our Labrador Retrievers...his dead, ours in the States. Not sure how we understood each other as we were both very limited in each other's native language. But it worked.

After the initial excitement of arriving at the field, he settled down and was a great entertainer to the many Austrians around. He made tons of new friends and enjoyed running around the baseball field after the game.

We also experienced our Austrian neighbors running to open the gate to our apartment. It's amazing how much having a dog changes people's reactions. There have been times when we have been struggling with grocery bags and people will slow down so they don't have to open the gate, but if you have a dog they are very helpful and willing to open and hold the gate so you don't have to be inconvenienced.

One night, Rebecca and I awoke to a whining Kramer...now, Kramer whining is a pretty regular thing :)...but he didn't come to either one of our sides when we called to him. He didn't come to our side, because his back side was stuck! He had somehow managed to get himself under the bed in a position where he just couldn't get up. I tried to slide him out but the only way to free him was for me to lift up the corner of the bed that he was stuck under. Of course, once he was freed he went right back to sleep. Don't worry, no dogs were harmed in the making of this story.

We were warned by Jeff and Bethany that Kramer is a "momma's boy"...well, this apparently also applies to substitute mommas. This became very clear to us when Rebecca was in the restroom and she looked down to see that Kramer's entire tail had slipped in under the door. Very rarely could Rebecca move from one room to the next without Kramer following her.

Some pictures...