Fleischwurst

October 9th, 2009, the first full day in Germany for Frannie and me. We started the day with a hike in the Koblenzer Stadtwald. There a several nice trails that Magda and I have enjoyed in the past. One in particular is a 6 km loop with one relatively steep uphill section of 1 km. If we are good, we can do this in under an hour. Although we walked Frannie a lot in our neighborhood of Clintonville in Columbus, Ohio, this would be a long walk for her and we wondered about her ability. While it was not a major problem for Frannie, it was noticeable how she started the walk sprinting ahead of us, by the end she was walking with us.

We headed off to a local Metzgerei (butcher shop) to stock up for the week-end. It was a Friday, but Saturday was a German holiday so shops would be closed. And on Sunday, shops are always closed. In getting our meats for the week-end, we were given a piece of Fleischwurst for the dog. Dogs and children traditionally get a piece of sausage at he butcher's. Fleicshwurst is a finely ground sausage pretty similar to what you would find in baloney or hotdogs in the USA. Frannie has experience both hot dogs and baloney as treats, but for her Fleischwurst was a discovery. I cannot tell you why Fleischwurt is more exciting than baloney or a hotdog. But we have never seen Frannie so excited about food. And this is a dog that does not show much excitement about anything. She was doing every trick that we ask, and inventing a few new one. Anything for that next piece of Fleischwurst.

Maybe we shouldn't read too much into it. The 6 km hike we had just finished may have contributed to her excitement for any kind of food. But she did seem to find a reason to be happy about the new digs.