Naughty Kobe...

Naughty Kobe...

As soon as I came back from Paris, I got ready for my first training session with Kobe. I called Nadia, his owner, to confirm our usual Sunday morning training session and got shocked at what she had to tell me: Kobe was recovering from a stomach operation at the vet! The story is as follows:
While I was gone for a week, Nadia gave birth to her first child, one week earlier than planned. Therefore, obviously she didn’t have any time to spend with Kobe. At the same time, he also didn’t have any training sessions as I was gone (usually I would train him 3 times a week). Bad timing! The natural consequence was that Kobe soon got bored and frustrated...and this is when he started playing the Golden Retriever’s favourite game and took his revenge: chew and swallow anything that comes your way! Believe it or not, one day he decided to chew and swallow a huge pebble that he picked up from the bathroom, 2 smaller stones from the garden, several pieces of glass and some other stuff that could not be identified...Fortunately, someone saw him chewing on the glass and he was immediately taken to the vet where they took x-rays that clearly showed everything that he had swallowed. There was no other option but to cut open his stomach and take the stuff out. Today I picked him up and poor Kobe has a large scar on his belly. He was incredibly happy to see me and once he realised that he was back home he started to jump around out of joy...He surely has suffered but I believe that since it didn’t kill him it could have only made him stronger...

Parisien Fata Morgana...

Nayla, a Lebanese friend of mine from Abu Dhabi, won a free trip to Paris at a raffle at work and I was fortunate enough to be ‘the chosen one’ to join her for this one week trip. It was a great change for us: while we were already fighting the heat in Abu Dhabi at about 30 degrees, the climate in Paris was windy, rainy and cold...We loved it and spent most of the week walking through the entire city...To cut a long story short, at one point we were in a museum called l’Orangerie where you can admire Monet’s full size water lilies in the daylight. This museum is situated inside a park called les Tuilleries which starts at the Louvre and takes you all the way to La Concorde. While I was looking outside the window I suddenly saw Paulo and Liwa playing in the park. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ran out of the museum to get closer. And then I could clearly see a big white Saluki looking just like Paulo playing with a Jack Russell Terrier, just like Liwa (just a big bigger)...and they were playing their favourite game: The Jack Russell would sneak up as close as he could to the saluki and then he would suddenly start running and chase the saluki who would run in big circles. I went even closer and took some pictures. Then I met the owner who told me that he had bought his saluki from a Belgium breeder and was interested to know more about the Salukis in Abu Dhabi...