Category: Wieselbert

Dear Father Anthony,

I heard you’re curious to see how your favorite blind dog (I sincerely hope I still am! ; ) is doing in his new home in Vienna. So I thought I’m gonna write you a letter – and since they say that a picture says a thousand words, smart dog that I am, I made it a picture-letter!

This is me on my pillow in the lower apartment, where I spend most of the day when my new master is working on his laptop on the desk next to me.
You also see my first (and still favourite) cuddly toy the lion which was a welcome-gift from my oldest stepbrother Felix.
(truth is that I stole the lion from his bed, but he was so generous and decided I may keep it ; )

Me on my pillow with my (ever-growing) shoe-collection.
When my master leaves the apartment for some time, I just like to have his scent around me. Master knows that I’m a veeeeery good dog and he can leave me alone for 2-3 hours without me making too much foolery…

…aside from completing my shoe-collection and pimping it up with some underwear stolen out of the washing machine.
(did I already mention that I love the scent of my master? as you can see it helps me to relax tooootally)
Like I mentioned before, during daytime I’m residing in my lower apartment. When work is done and the evening comes, master and me move up to the upper apartment, where our mistress and Jacob (my youngest step-brother) are already waiting for us.

As you can clearly see, I’m feeling very comfortable on my blue pillow in the upper apartment as well!
“now will somebody finally start to tickle my belly?!”
(I’m only joking – I really can’t complain, Jacob fondles and tickles me all day long!)

I also love to cuddle up to my beautiful dear mistress

My oldest step-sister Namita loves to caress me too.
So you see my needs for physical contact and cuddling are fulfilled in abundance.

But don’t ya think, all I do all day long is lying on my pillow and being tickled and caressed.
Nono – not at all!
Master and mistress have at least 3 long walks with me every day.
Most of the time we are tramping along the “Alszeile“, a nice alley near our house, but what I reeeeaaaally love are the walks in the woods!
That’s where I really feel like on cloud nine.
The so-called “Wienerwald” is just a few car-minutes away, so we manage to get there at least 3 times a week.

Me in the wonderful “Wienerwald“, that I love so much.

Master and mistress were surprised at first when they noticed that my absolutely favourite activity is digging. I simply can’t walk by a molehill without starting severe earthwork operations. I’m obsessed by this, simply can’t stop digging.
A couple of times master tried to test his patience and see how long I would be able to dig on one particular molehill – the mole always won, record was 90 minutes on a single hole till master lost his patience and dragged me away..

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a molehill – a simple hole in the ground can be enough to stimulate my nose and my hunting passion.

It was by accident on one of these excursions to the Wienerwald, that we met an old lady who told us that I am not just “some Terrier mutt”, but in fact I am a purebred “Deutscher Jagdterrier“, a breed specialized in hunting foxes and badgers – now that explains my passion for digging!

Last week it started to snow in Vienna – I enjoy the woodwalks in the snow quite alot too…

…and my delicate Jagdterrier-nose allows me to find those mole- and mouseholes in the ground even under the snow!

So dear father Anthony, as you can hopefully see on those pictures, I’m having quite a good time here in my new home in Vienna – I’m very satisfied with the choice of my new family.

But of course I want to be 100% honest to you father, there are also things that stress me a bit. The worst thing is when we meet other dogs on our walks.
As you can see on the pictures, I’m always on the leash when we are outside the house.
Master does not dare to leave me running without leash, because I can’t seem to behave when other dogs are around. I start to whine and bark and bite at every other dog.
But you probably know this.
In my first days here, my master made the mistake to let me near another dog (the mistress of the other dog insisted that we should try) and this ended quite bad. I immediately bit the other dog (he was three times my size!) into the leg and didn’t let loose, even though master tried to separate us.
The other dog had to be sewed up with 3 stitches afterwards – it was quite a shocking experience also for my master..
There were also a couple of times when I growled and barked at my new step-siblings, this also stressed master and mistress quite a bit.
Master took me to a dog trainer to work on this, the man said that I’m a good dog, but just need more time to really feel secure and comfortable around all those new people here and that we all need to have more patience and respect for my handicap  I’m a blind dog after all – with an eventful history..
Now we all try to be extra-careful with each other and we are confident that we get it all under control.

Speaking of “blind dog” – the first vet that we visited here in Vienna said that my blindness is due to a severe “cataract” in both eyes, which might eventually be cured by a surgery.
So master took me to the best specialists in town to see what can be done for my eyes, he really would have loved to give me back my eyesight – especially after having read the “Bartholomaeus” story in the holy bible.
Unfortunately all the medical examinations showed that there is simply no way to cure my eyes, because the retina on both of my eyes is completely degenerated, so even if I would get rid of my cataracted lenses, I would not be able to see anything at all.
Me I didn’t care much about this information, I’m used to being blind, I get along very well with my other senses that work much better than that of other dogs as you know.
Master was a bit sad at first when he heard this, but now has accepted it too.

So far so good, my dear father Anthony.
I hope you enjoyed reading my letter and seeing me again – even if only on pictures.
We didn’t attend the ACI-party on the 24th because master feared that I would be too much stressed by the other dogs, but maybe there will be another chance where I can meet and smell you again.
I’m looking forward to it!

All the best
Lots of Love
Your Barty