The cat person and some homeless Hungarian dogs

Yeah, I am a cat person.  I have an old photo of me when I was about 2 years old and draped in my arms is this huge cat and I am wearing a smile from ear to ear.  We never had dogs when I was a kid, only cats (I guess that I come from a long line of feline fanciers.)  The only time I had ever walked a dog was about 25 years ago when Jack and I babysat his parents' poodle.

Well, here in Hungary dogs are plentiful, but the number of cats I have seen can be counted on one hand.  I was going through animal withdraw!!

So, I did some research and found out that there is an animal shelter not too far from our school in the burb where we are living.  I sent and e-mail of inquiry and much to my surprise got a response in english along with an application form.  I filled it out, sent it via Hungarian snail mail and was notified that I could start the "work".  So last week I walked over after school and found the shelter and what a shelter it is.  It backs up to a large wooded area and has several structures strung along this path.  As I walked along I spotted a chicken shelter with some "fancy" chicken strutting around, an area with goats, a pen holding a ferret and then the dogs' buildings.  They are build it a circular formation with little pie wedge shaped pens which house three dogs each.  The advantage is that the dogs can see out through the bars because they are at the wide end of the wedge.  Of course when they saw me  I received a loud doggy welcome.

I found a sign which looked like it said something like "administration".  Sometimes Hungarian words look similar to English but usually there is no way to figure out a word.  They have lots more vowels than we do and some of them have accent marks.  The thing that makes a lot of sense to me about their language is that each vowel always sounds the same no matter the position in the word, (what a concept, huh?)  So I entered that building and found an office with several chairs and two women behind the counter.  I asked if either of them spoke English and the one at the computer responded and said that she recognized me from the passport photo that I had included with my application.  She asked if I would like to start.  I responded that I would and that I had lots of experience in cat shelters.  "We don't have any cats here, " she responded. " Would you like to walk a dog?"

I agreed but told her that I could only handle a small to medium sized dog.  They handed me a leash and lead me out to the round dog areas to a cocophany of barking.  They must have seen the lease and everyone wanted to go for a walk.  I was introduced to the fortunate pup.  I asked, Nav? which means name and patted the yellow mixed bread doggie.  As soon as she was clipped she took off, pulling like crazy on the lease.  How can a dog that weighs probably 35 pounds pull so hard that I almost went airborne??  She obviously knew the route, around the building to the gate which leads to a path through the wooded area.  This dog was SO excited to be exploring.  She took me along the creek and through the woods.  Who knew that all dogs do is pee, sniff and poop!  She could have cared less about me, she had her doggy agenda.  Luckily when I turned her around she knew the way back because I was really not sure!   When we got back to the ad building I took her inside.  The English speaker got on her walkie-talkie and called back the employee who had set me up with the dog.  When the young woman came in she swooped the dog up and then took her paw and helped the dog to wave goodbye to me.

I have been back several times to be pulled by a dog though the path.  They all seem to be estatic to be free.  When the lone English speaker is not in the Hungarians that work there and I just guesture and nod.  Everyone seems to know me and I don't have to show my picture ID.   I am probably the only non-native volunteer that they have.

The good news is last time I was there a cat who lives on the grounds found me.  He was one of those super friendly big males who purrs as soon as the petting commences.  So hopefully sometimes I can get a kitty fix when I am improving the lives of dogs!

Christmas in Europe

    We took the train to Prague for Christmas.

    You know the images that people have of trains in Europe where you have those cool compartments where you can slide the doors shut?  Well, the folks who were traveling 1st class had those, but the 2nd class cars which we were in were just like trains in the U.S.  As we stepped on the train to look for our seats which were printed on our tickets we saw someone in our seats.  Turned out that they were American and that someone was sitting in their seats, so appartently the seating assignments weren't adhered to.  So we sat down across the aisle from them.  Turned out it was a father (about mid 40's) and his daughter who were in Europe for Christmas.  Well, we talked almost the entire 7 hours of the trip.  We didn't realize how hungry we were for conversation with Americans!  And these folks were aligned with our values and lifestyle.  Mark had served in the Peace Corp and so he understood the challenges of being in a foreign country where little English is spoken.  They were politically liberal just like us and Morgan was quite the composed and mature young woman of 18, so we enjoyed talking with her as well.

   When we arrived at the train station the first thing we had to do was change money.  At the time I had in my wallet Euros, dollars and Hungarian forint.  When we got the Czech currency I was carrying 4 currencies!  Both The Czech Republic and Hungary are part of the EU and are scheduled to change to euros.  However with the global economy such as it is there have been delays in the process.  Hungary was supposed to change in 2010, but there economy is really depressed and so it has been postponed indefinitely.

    We felt quite comfortable taking the subway to our hotel stop and felt pleased that we are now able to negotiate subway systems with relative ease.  The Hotel Europa was just a short walk downhill (thank goodness for suitcases on wheels).  When we arrived we walked into a grand old hotel with character oozing from it's 120 year old walls.  Our room was on the 4th floor which we got to in one of those old elevators with the metal gates.  To make a long story short, the room was a massive suite with old style furnishings and built in closets overlooking a square with lots of action.  We were enthralled until we discovered that the toilet only flushed intermittently and the shower lacked water that was warmer than tepid with no water pressure!

    As soon as we dropped our luggage, we bundled up to go explore and find dinner.  Following a glimpse of a steeple that we could see, we found the main square which was dominated by the most beautiful Christmas tree that I had ever seen!  It literally brought me to tears!

  So, we spent 3 days walking the streets of Prague with a lot of tourists and locals as well.  The city is about half the size of Budapest, so it was an easier feat to accomplish.  It was super cold the whole time, but each day had fewer clouds so our pictures improved.  We had an incredible time and really felt like we had been dropped into a fairy tale.

   We made some interesting observations about the Czechs v. Hungarians.  First of all there is much more english spoken at least in the areas that we visited.  Language was just not an issue.  Also, the Czechs understand about service in a restaurant, offering excellent service and suggesting additions to make the meals more complete.  This is something that we never experience in Budapest.  There, they take your order which sometimes means that we point to the Hungarian words on the menu and pray that we are making a good choice, bring it, and then you never see them until you have to flag the server down to beg that they bring the check.  Once they do, though, they hoover over you as you look at the bill and calculate the tip.

   I have included several pictures which speak to our experience in Prague as well as anything.