Saving Sadie

Jordan and I have been talking about getting a puppy for a while. We have to leave our sweet Brody boy behind because of an old wound that keeps reopening. In order for dogs to come to Turkey they have to have a clean bill of health, which is ironic considering the condition that the Turkish dogs are in. We are eternally thankful to my Grandma Freida who has been taking good care of him while we are away. Jordan and I are both dog people and we missed having a furry friend around.

We talked about getting a dog from a breeder in Germany, but it would have cost more than we were willing to spend. We looked at puppies at the pet stores here, but none of them really captured our hearts. Despite the dire warnings we received, we decided to try the animal shelter off base. It's a "no kill" shelter, which means that they will never euthanize the animals under any condition. Unfortunately this means that there are dogs running around with limbs missing, huge bloody wounds, intestines hanging out, and any other tragedy you could possibly imagine. They keep the very sick and injured dogs together in separate kennels, however.

Our intention was to adopt a puppy around 8-12 weeks. When we got there we looked around for awhile, and came upon a very protective mama dog with 3 tiny puppies that looked hours old. She was very protective of them. Our hearts just broke for her because we knew the puppies would probably die  in the circumstances. It had been flooding for days, and although they had shelter, everything was just wet and cold. We went home that night, talked it over, and decided that we wanted to adopt the mama and all the puppies if they let us. The next day Jordan went back to the shelter and they told him that he could have the puppies in a week, but we couldn't take the mama because she was a surrogate. Communication was very difficult, because they speak very little English and Jordan speaks very little Turkish.

The next day we went back to the shelter and the puppies were all dead. You could tell that the mama was depressed and my heart ached for her. I thought maybe they would let me take the mama now, since she didn't have any puppies to feed. Jordan had his eye on another rambunctious puppy a couple kennels down. Unfortunately the shelter closed while we were there. Everyone just packed up and went home even though we were there to adopt a dog. That's Turkey for you. We went home that night and decided we would get the mama if they let us have her; if not, we would get the bouncing older puppy that Jordan liked.

Jordan used the internet to translate a bunch of phrases that we thought we might need, and we headed to the shelter to get our dog. Once again they told us that we could not have the mama dog. We went to look at the hyper puppy and pointed at her and asked if we could meet her. It was raining so hard that the men working there were all wearing bright orange rain suits. When the opened the kennel, the dog shot out like a bullet and there were a bunch of people chasing her for awhile. She eventually ran back inside. One of the orange men went into her kennel with a noose-like device; it was two long sticks, with fabric in the middle. He twisted it around her neck and yanked her out of the kennel. The dog was shaking and crying and just frantic. I was just shocked at how violently he treated her.

There was a vet on site that had been talking to Jordan. She pointed at a little bloody spot on her neck and said she was injured. Then one of the men took a rusty old razor and shaved off a large section on her neck over and around the tiny wound. They then dumped all this blue stuff on her, that I assume was something like iodine. They ripped the tag out of her ear. They were being unnecessarily rough and mean to the poor dog the whole time. Jordan kept asking if we could just meet the dog, and we weren't necessarily committed to taking her home right now. There was a huge communication break down. I think it was around this time that I started to have a panic attack. There was so much barking and commotion, it was pouring rain, and I just couldn't handle it. I started crying and just had to get away from those people. Jordan went inside to talk to the vet.

After speaking with the vet he learned that you aren't allowed to meet the dogs first. You point at one and take it home and that's that. They said that we could bring her back in a couple days if we didn't like her. It's hard to say who was more of a mess- me or the dog. The orange men manhandled her into the kennel in the jeep, and we got out of that place as fast as we could. I cried all the way home and Jordan kept encouraging me, saying that we would give it a shot and bring her back if it didn't work out. Like we could really take her back that place. The only thing I remember saying to Jordan was, "but she's blue!". The rusty razor gave her razor burn and she itched herself violently the whole way home.

By the time we made it home, the whole area that they shaved was a bloody mess. She was wet, blue, bloody, and completely pathetic. We put the kennel in our backyard and opened the door. She came out and tenderly sniffed us and then went right back in. Nothing could coax her out...not even bloody meat. We let her be. After a couple hours she came out and allowed herself to be pet. She was much more comfortable with me than Jordan. I can only assume she has been mistreated by men her whole life. I carried her into the bathtub and we gave her a good scrub down. She was surprisingly calm and passive. Most of the blue washed off, along with about a pound of dirt. While we were bathing her we realized she was covered in bites. Jordan ran to the store and got her flea medicine and we put that on her as soon as she was dry. The poor creature was just in agony and could do nothing but itch herself, making everything worse. We got her the Friday before Christmas, and the vet wouldn't be back until January 2nd. I started giving her Benadryl every 6 hours. It only took the edge off for the first 3 hours, and I was giving her the maximum safe dose. Our first couple days with her were long and difficult and the nights were sleepless. We called her Blueberry for those first couple days.

Even simple things were difficult with her. She was absolutely terrified of the leash and wouldn't let us get anywhere near her with a collar. Fortunately she wouldn't stray within a couple feet from us. The first time I put her in the grass to go potty was hilarious. She had never stood on grass before, because she was always on cement in the animal shelter. She was scared of it and her paws had strange jerky movements.

Finally she started showing some personality on Christmas day. We were ecstatic that she started playing with the wrapping paper because it was the first thing she showed interest in besides scratching. We knew that in order to start training her we needed to come up with a name. We had a list, and voted on it at Christmas dinner. We finally decided on Sadie Buttercup. These days we joke that her middle name should have been "Naughty".

The first toy that we bought her is a stuffed duck that quacks when you squeeze it. The first time she made it quack it scared her half to death and she took off running with her tail between her legs. After a while she was playing with it and every time the duck quacked she whimpered. It was about the funniest thing I've ever seen. Her favorite trick now is to come up behind us and squeeze it. It makes me jump every time!

Every day is a challenge with her, but each day is a little better than the last. I think God gave us Sadie to help me practice patience before we start a family. Most of the time she's a little angel, but sometimes she sure infuriates me. Like this morning, when I took her out first thing in the morning; I was so proud of her because she pooped and peed right away. About 10 minutes later she left a huge poop for me right in the middle of the carpet! Really, Sadie?? Do you save that little turd special for me?? I was so mad at her I couldn't look at her for about an hour. Her sweet puppy kisses make up for it though!

This was taken at the shelter, right after they poured blue stuff on her. What a pathetic mess! Can you see why we called her Blueberry?

This was the second day. Notice how bad her neck is now. I'm surprised she stopped scratching long enough for me to snap this picture! Poor baby.

Her kennel was definitely her "safe place" for the first couple days. She let us put this harness on her after a couple days. She looks like she's up to no good in this one!

Christmas day, playing with the wrapping paper! First signs of puppiness!

She is always within a couple feet of me. One of the names on our list was "Shadow"because of this.

Sleeping right next to me. I love her legs when she sleeps! 

Sadie and her Duck! She can finally wear a collar now! She looks awfully proud of herself.

She always tries to lick me when I attempt to take a picture of her. This one was taken today. She is looking much happier, don't you think??

Our Winter Vacation Part 4- Salzburg, Austria

Vacation Day 12
We doddled around Munich for the last time, and then hopped on a train to Salzburg in the late afternoon. The directions to our hotel were difficult to decipher, because the whole website was in German only. After an uneventful train ride, we got off the train around 7:30 pm at what we thought was our destination. The station was completely deserted, and it was snowing like crazy. We managed to hail a taxi and when he saw the address he informed us that we got off at the wrong stop. He offered to take us, but said it would cost a lot of money. He told us which stop we should have taken. Unfortunately they wasn't another train leaving for an hour in a half. There was not a soul at the station, and nothing within walking distance, so I got on a deserted to train to wait in the warmth. Jordan was waiting outside, and met some nice high school kids. They were part of a holiday festival and their faces were painted. Apparently it was St. Nicholas Day and they dress up as demonic creatures and scare children. I'm not really sure what the point is...but the high school kids spoke English and were very nice. They helped us get off on the right stop and even called us a cab. By the time we finally made it to our hotel it was 11pm. We were very lucky to get in. There was no reception and no one was there to help us. Jordan randomly found the key to our room, so we let ourselves in. We were disappointed to find the room had two twin beds on opposite sides of the room. We pushed them together, but it wasn't the same, because there was a cold gap between them!

Vacation Day 13
We woke up to someone opening our door. Apparently we left the key in it the night before, and the German lady running the place decided to let herself in. She did not speak a lick of English. About 10 minutes after she left, Jordan's bed broke. Try as we might, we could not get ahold of her to come fix it. On the hotel web page it said that they provide free transportation to Salzburg (which is why we chose that hotel in the first place), but it was pretty apparent that was a farce. Once we found the bus station we realized that we were an hour bus ride from the city. Sigh. Sometimes planning a vacation is harder than it looks!

We had some breakfast (or rather lunch by this point) at a nice cafe, and then headed into old town. Downtown Salzburg is very nice. It's right on a river, and there is a very nice shopping district. We did a lot of walking around and window shopping. We went to a tourist information center and bought a "Salzburg card" that seemed to be financially wise at the time. It allowed us "free" access to all the museums and many other tourist attractions.

We used the card first at the Natural History Museum. It was similar to the Pacific Science Center, but bigger. Unfortunately pretty much everything was in German, so we didn't learn too much. One thing that shocked us about the museum was the section on human conception. There was a lot of stuff in there that I didn't need to see...let alone small children! We were shocked!! We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

After the museum closed, we wandered along to the Christmas market. It was very big and wonderful and festive! I found a video from National Geographic video that shows exactly what it was like! We saw practically everything in this video. Check it out! http://vimeo.com/55537908

After dinner and a couple glasses of red wine, we took a train back to our cold hotel.

Vacation Day 14
We decided to mix things up and take the train into town with hopes that it would be faster. We had to switch trains, so it ended up actually taking a little bit longer.

We visited Hohensalzburg fortress today! Construction on the fortress began in 1077 and throughout the years it has been added to. It is actually one of the largest medieval castles in Europe! It sits at the top of a little "mountain". The castle was refurbished in the late 19th century and is now primarily a tourist attraction.

We took the Festungsbahn cable car from the town to the fortress. We were thankful we didn't have to hike up because it was very cold and snowy! The view of the city from above was just beautiful! We had some delicious lunch at a cafe with a wonderful view. We then toured the castle museum, and did even did an audio tour. We were able to climb up to the topmost tower for the best view of all! It was awfully cold and windy though, so we didn't stay long.

Once we had our fill of touring the castle we visited the Christmas market that was in the middle of the courtyard of the castle. It was just wonderful! We tried a new hot, delicious drink called the feuerzagenbowle and we were not disappointed!

It was sweet Sienna's birthday, and we really wanted to call her to wish her a Happy Birthday! We searched high and low for wireless internet. After asking around, we found out that McDonalds had wireless. Unfortunately the place was packed, and we had a very poor internet signal. After sitting there for about an hour trying to get the internet to work we finally gave up and had a delicious Big Mac. One of the most frustrating things about Europe was the lack of internet access!

After dinner we were very tired, and decided to head back to the hotel a little early to get some rest. The bus wasn't running at that hour, so we took a train. We got stuck at the disgusting little station called Freilassing and found out that our connecting train was an hour late. There were a handful of us stuck in this nasty place. The only bench left was in front of this guy that was passed out drunk. After about 20 minutes, he decided it would be a good idea to take a leak right there. We heard the liquid noise and turned around. Jordan almost created an international incident by yelling at the man about his indecent behavior. I'm pretty sure that no one in the spoke English, and the guy fell right back asleep afterwards. We were both so disgusted...but very thankful that we didn't get pee on us!

By the time our train finally came, we ended up getting back extra late. It was about a 10 minute walk back to our room and the snow was coming down. It was extra sparkly on the ground and just breathtakingly beautiful! Although the town that we stayed in was far out of town, it was nestled in a little valley surrounded by snowy hills. It was just a perfect little winter wonderland! We were thankful for God's magnificent beauty!

Vacation Day 15
On our last day in Salzburg we woke up to a crystal, clear beautiful day! We decided to take advantage of our Salzburg card, which included a free cable car ride to the top of a mountain called Untersberg. Visibility was just perfect, and we were excited. Unfortunately, in order to get there we had to take an hour train ride into the city, and then take an hour bus ride to the mountain. We thought it would well be worth the time. After our two hours of travel time, we got to the mountain to find that the cable car was closed. There was no one there, just a sign on the door stating that it was closed until December 27th (in German of course). We were not the only people that traveled so far to get there. We were both so frustrated, because this was one of the main reasons we bought the card. It was advertised on the front of the card as the main selling point, and no one informed us of the closure when we got there. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. We rode an hour back into town and went to the tourist center again and asked for our money back. They stated that they tell everyone about the closure when the sell the card and refused to refund us. Not only did we waste money on the card, but we wasted over 3 hours of our last vacation day. Sigh. Well, there was nothing we could do about it, so we decided to make the most of the day.

Both of us really love all the old churches, so we decided to go explore a bunch of them. The first church we visited, St. Peter's (I am pretty sure there is a St. Peter's church in every town), had a cemetery attached. It is the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. It's also where the Von Trap family hid out in Sound of Music, my all time favorite movie! (However, I didn't realize that when I was there.) We weren't able to look at a lot of the headstones because it was covered in snow! Right new to the graveyard were catacombs, carved into the mountain side. They date back to 700, and included two small chapels. It was so mind blowing to be in a place with so much history! The church wasn't a bad attraction either.

We visited 2 more churches. Both of them we very interesting and old but unfortunately I don't have anything noteworthy to say about either of them.

It was so stinkin' cold outside that we visited the Modern Art museum. It was not my favorite feature of Salzburg, but it was warm!

We had some delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant Jordan had his eye on, and then visited the Christmas market one last time. We wanted to pick out an ornament for our first Christmas together! We found one we both agreed on pretty quickly. We then had our last beer (sniff) and hopped on the train back to our hotel. Once again the snow was very sparkly and beautiful and we fully enjoyed the frigid 10 minute walk.

Vacation Day 16
We spent the day on the train traveling from Salzburg back to Zurich. We had some dinner, bought a few Christmas presents, and then went back to the hotel to pack everything securely in our bags! The next morning we took a train to the airport and made our way back to Turkey, home sweet home! Fantastic vacation!

Beautiful sunrise! What a glorious morning!

Mmmm mmmm McDonalds! McDonalds is really fancy here. They have a dessert case and everything!

At the top of Hohensalzburg fortress! Brrrr

Jordan being silly at the Natural History Museum. 

The pretty shopping street! 

This is the fortress looming in the background! 

Yaaaay art!

The cables of the cable car that was closed. 

This is in the town that our hotel was in. Idyllic!

Man man, just being handsome.

Winter wonderland!

This was taken from a window in the catacombs. You can see three different churches, and the cemetery below us. This is where Sound of Music was filmed when they were hiding from the German soldiers. Recognize it??

Candles in one of the churches.

Another beautiful view of Salzburg.

Jordan was very lucky to capture this adorable moment! How cute are they??

Eating dinner on the flight home. Turkish airlines has the best airplane food I've ever had and they even feed you a whole meal on 45 minute flights! 

Our Winter Vacation Part 3- Munich, Germany

Vacation Day 8

The train ride from Garmisch to Munich was only an hour in a half long. For this leg of the journey, we  tried something new for lodging. There is a website called AirBnB that we decided to try. Regular people all over the world sign up to rent out rooms in their house or their whole house. Then regular people sign up to stay there. You can search by city, based on price. The host writes an online review about the guest, and the guest writes a review about the host. It can be quite a bit cheaper than finding a hotel. So for our stay in Munich, we had arranged to stay in the spare bedroom of a couple named Andy and Annette. Their place was right in the middle of downtown Munich, within walking distance to everything. They were very kind and helpful and even had a pile of brochures about Munich for us. 

We arrived around 3pm, and Andy suggested that we walk to St. Peter's Church and check out the view of the city from the top. We did just that! It only took us about 10 minutes to walk there and we had a fantastic view of the sun setting over the city. 

We then headed to a Vietnamese place for dinner that our hosts suggested. The food was delicious! I had sushi and it felt very silly to be an American eating Japanese food at a Vietnamese restaurant in Germany.

We then headed back to the flat, chatted with Andy and Annette for a bit, then watched a movie and went to bed!

Vacation Day 9

Our hosts made us aware of a "free" walking tour of the city, so we decided to check it out. We met the English tour guide in the middle of the square at Marieplatz. Our guide was from the US and worked on a donations-only basis. She took us on a 3.5 hour walking tour and we really enjoyed it! She was very knowledgeable about the city. It was a very cold, windy day and we were about chilled to the bone by the time we finished. We learned a good deal about WWII history, Hitler, churches, and (of course) beer! When the tour was over, we went to a famous brewery, the Hofbrauhaus and had a giant glass of beer and a giant pretzel. This bar is one of the oldest breweries in Munich, which was founded in 1589. There have been many famous visitors, including Motzart, Lenin, JFK, and of course, Hitler. In fact, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazi party, was formed here.  It's now a big tourist place and is very loud and boisterous. We enjoyed the German festivity, and listened to a traditional Germany band. 

Vacation Day 10

The main reason I wanted to come to Munich was to visit the Christmas markets. We spent pretty much all day wandering around the many Christmas markets, shopping for treasures for our family. We enjoyed delicious beer and yummy food, as usual. 

Our hosts told us about this canal in the city where there is a little wake that surfers flock to year round. We decided to check it out, and sure enough, right in the middle of the city were these crazy people having a grand old time surfing a dinky wake over and over again in the freezing cold. Ridiculous! We watched them for a little bit, and then had to move on because we were too cold just standing there!

Vacation Day 11

We decided to do an all day tour of Dachau through the same tour group we used a couple days ago. We met our tour group, and took a bus together to Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps to open in Germany. The tour was 5 hours long and was a very somber experience. Dachau was used as a prototype for the other concentration camps. The camp was opened in 1933, fifty-one days after Hitler took power. It was originally used as an internment center of the Third Reich, or in other words, a concentration camp for political prisoners. At first, most of the prisoners were German nationals, who were there for "political reasons". Eventually it was used for prisoners of all types. 

Dachau was officially a concentration camp for 12 years. According to wikipedia, around 32,000 prisoners died there. We learned on our tour that this number was not at all accurate, because this number comes from registered deaths, and many people were killed before they were officially "registered". We learned all about the living and working conditions of the people. It was meant to hold 5,000 prisoners, but at one point there were over 200,000 prisoners there. The camp used to have 69 barracks. One was reserved for clergy who opposed the Nazi party and another was entirely for medical experimentation. The camp is surrounded by a barbed wire electric fence, a huge deep ditch, and a wall with 7 different guard towers.

Much of what we learned is so terrible that I cannot even blog about it. Supposedly the camp was not used for mass murders, but there is a crematorium there used to dispose of the dead. We also went into a gas chamber. We were told it is only one of two surviving. This chamber wasn't used for mass murder as much as for perfecting the "gas chamber process". The camp was liberated in 1945 by the U.S. Army. Even after the camp was liberated, the people were so weak and sick that they continued to die. The camp was closed in 1060, and many memorials have gone up since then. 

There was a museum at the camp, and a huge map showed all of the concentration camps as well as the satellite camps. I was completely blown away by how many there were...it was astounding. One thing that Jordan and I both found very impressive about the site was how Germany doesn't hide their ugly past, but teaches about it so that others may learn. 

I was very very glad that we went on this tour and had to opportunity to learn so much history. Our tour guide was fantastic, and had done the Dachau tour more than 400 times. I cannot even imagine doing that as a full time job. Once was enough. 

At the top of St. Peter's church, Munich in the background.

A view of Marienplatz from the church tower. Beautiful!

The Christmas Market at Marienplatz. So festive!!

Freezing my bum off on our walking tour of Munich!

No dogs, no ice cream, no pants, no hats. What???

Jordan was really proud of this picture. It's a lion face that people rub for luck.

Something else that people rub for luck.  I wish I took a picture of her without Jordan because the place that he is touching is bright gold colored, from all the rubbing!

The great hall in the Hofbrauhaus!

BIG pretzel and BIG beer! We love Germany, yay!!

Yep, that one was just for me. 

The oompa-loompa band behind us. We are still in the Hofbrauhaus

Having a yummy breakfast in a little cafe. I look like an excited chipmunk.

The surfers having a good old time in the canal!

I saw someone eating one and had to try it. It's basically chocolate covered marshmallow with nuts. Mmm! I also have my sleepy eyes! Vacation is hard work!

Happy to be drinking gluhwein!

Pretty ornaments at the Christmas market. Good thing we didn't buy this for someone...it would have definitely been broken by the time we got home!

I <3 Germany!

Panorama of the pretty Christmas market at night!

Sunset at Dachau concentration camp.

God makes all things beautiful!