The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

Xena Dog Princess

Xena Dog Princess

Location
Wellington, NZ
I'm pretty sure you've been convinced, Rose, but in case you haven't - we always need more Antipodean voices on the forum! And you're a twofer (two for one) - an Aussie AND you're living in Ireland (we don't have any members based in Ireland yet).

@Emily_Babbelhund those boxes are great but not particularly durable, which isn't surprising considering the price but just fyi.
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Xena Dog Princess said:
@Emily_Babbelhund those boxes are great but not particularly durable, which isn't surprising considering the price but just fyi.
Click to expand...
No worries, I actually need something that's flexible for packing (so Mags' hard plastic folding box wouldn't work unfortunately), so it needs to be flimsy which kind of means not particularly durable. I'll give it a go and see what happens.
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
It's been a quiet week on Carbon's thread - at least for oversharing 'moi' - because I hit the ground running in my quest for residence permit and taxation zen. I say 'zen' as I don't hope to achieve 'happiness' on these two subjects, but I do have hopes that I can get it sorted and move on with my existence. You know, like normal people - grumble over taxes a couple times a year and then forget it.

This week my hopes for zen were dashed. HOPEFULLY temporarily.

I won't go into the boring details, but suffice it to say that after five years, Germany has essentially told me to gather my toys up and go home. This despite me following their every edict during every stage of the game. I am very lucky, however, that I have a good immigration lawyer who has pronounced the whole thing "incredibly stupid" (a technical legal term as I understand it) and has told me that he will find a solution. Despite beginning the renewal process back in July, I now have only seven days left of my current permit: the clock is ticking loudly in my head.

So let's send all the lambie power to my energetic lawyer in anticipation that he kicks some you-know-what in the you-knoow-where and gets me a stay of execution.

:thelambiesarecoming:

And let me be clear, I don't want to stay because I hate the US or need refuge from any horrible situation in my home country. I know that I'm privileged in that sense. But I've worked hard and invested a great deal financially to build a life in Europe and if at all possible, this is where I want to stay. Well, that and the fact that I'd be uninsured in the frightening US health care system if I went back...that's frankly a scary possibility.

So, to bring this back to Carbon as it's HIS thread after all...

I wouldn't say that Señor Grumpypantalones has returned, but we're both a bit subdued. I can only guess for Carbon, but for me, I'm grateful to stop moving after two months - and 10.000 kms! - on the road, but it's also bittersweet as we both miss two and four-legged friends we had the pleasure of seeing along the way. We've also both been spending much more time than usual sleeping. For me, any more than four hours a day is 'a lot' but the last couple days it's been rainy nap time. I've been surprised that instead of jumping on my face - Carbon's usual tactic to get me to feed him - he's been curling up beside me and snoozing away. Maybe we both needed a good rest?

Wednesday was Irish pub night where he got a bit grumbly with another dog - to be fair the other dog came after Carbon - and then walked around charming all the men there to watch the football match. Then yesterday and today it was "Gassi" (dog walk) time with my friends who have the hooligan pack. Nothing like going out with a bunch of hooligans to make Carbon look like the Spanish gentleman dog he aspires to be!

Thanks to several UK friends, I'm now using the whistle with him and he is consistently coming back to double pips. I wouldn't want to try him in an emergency yet, but it's working much better than any voice command ever did, so I'm optimistic.

Certainly Carbon's biggest star turn last week was our emergency visit to my lawyer's office on Friday. After four hours at the immigration office and getting turned away for my permit renewal, I picked Carbon up and made a mad dash to my lawyer, hoping he'd be able to see me. Frankly at that point I didn't care what the law office thought about Carbon as he'd already been alone since 6am and I wasn't leaving him alone again.

The office, however, proved to be dog-friendly in the extreme. My lawyer went completely mushy over Carbon and even fed him part of the sandwich that he - apparently - buys every day for his colleague's dog. Carbon was delighted with his first legal experience and my lawyer seemed tickled pink to feed Bavarian ham to a very adoring pup.

The battle starts anew tomorrow, not only for my legal 'stuff' but also to try to get Carbon into the Leish-friendly vet again. I tried last Monday to no avail, so I'll re-tackle it until I can battle my way in.

Fingers crossed that my lawyer is all-powerful, that the vet finds us a slot, that it stays non-snowy so that I can get to all my appointments in the snow-hating Tardis and that my brain doesn't simply explode.

And here's hoping that week AFTER next is very very boring. :fingers:
 
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