The relationship between humans and animals
Julius & Anna
Julius ran to me on a Hungarian horse farm. In order not to get in trouble with customs, I had him vaccinated in Hungary. At home, the vaccinations had to be refreshed, I selected a doctor in my area. Coincidentally, she specialized in purebred cats, everywhere were animal photos with names like Daphne vom Fürstenwald. I presented the Hungarian papers in which, apart from my name, Countess zu Stolberg, and "Julius", there was nothing understandable. The doctor leaned over my cat and said: "So you are the little countess at Stolberg, and you ...", she continued to me, "are ... um ... Julius?" Moments in which I laugh tears are common with Julius. It's like living with a good friend in a shared flat. You can not do what you want - for example, I have to turn off my hard rock when it comes, and immediately open a can, he kindly lets his paws out of the aquarium and the claws off the sofa - but we feel comfortable with each other. Single-loneliness? I do not know.
Albino Tiger Python & Marlies
Here I am surrounded by a rarity: a five year old albino tiger python. It belongs to my zoo on the Drachenfels in Königswinter. By the way, she is non-toxic, but bites anyway. According to legend, Siegfried is said to have killed the dragon here. My dad thought this was a fitting place for a reptile zoo he founded in 1958. Next door are the Nibelungenhalle and the Drachenhöhle, built in honor of Richard Wagner, the composer of the "Siegfried" opera. I grew up with snakes, crocodiles - and Wagner enthusiasm. Later I took over the zoo (and the Wagner worship). We own about 90 reptiles. These are not cuddly animals, they just tolerate us. But for me working with animals is happy, it's my life.
Emil & Ingrid
I always wanted to have a gelding. They are not as bitchy as mares. And not as brushed as ruffians. I discovered Emil through an ad nine years ago. He was a three-year-old Westphalian. In a horse, I watch how it behaves when cleaning, saddling and riding, and listen to my stomach. The stomach said: He's nice, take that! Emil is really gentle, likes to cuddle, and even the stable cat lies down to him and he licks her off. Emil is a mimosa. He hates changes. The daily routine always has to be the same, otherwise he will not eat anymore. And when he comes in contact with stinging nettles, he does a drama and needs to be comforted. As men are. However, Emil is easier to judge, more loyal and certainly more honest than a man. I would never give it up. Not even for a partner with horse hair allergy.
Jackie, Bubi & Maria Jolenta
Without my cockatiels I would not have been able to cope with the death of my husband. He died a year ago, we were happily married for 60 years. I fell into a hole and almost gave up on grief. But there were my little birds, who have been like children for me for 21 years, we talk to each other, we sing in the morning and in the evening, we go to sleep at the same time and, indeed, watch animal programs together. Jackie and Bubi also mourned, they did not eat and were very quiet. I could not abandon her. So I had to get up, eat, shop. To comfort the animals, I have spoiled them, let them bathe often, then under my drying hood, the heat is good for them. If I am allowed to take care of someone, I too am comforted.
Hilde, Suki & Marie-Lou
I was on vacation in Morocco, suddenly Hilde was sitting under my beach chair. She was still a puppy, sick, barely fur and with a broken hip. I left without her, but at home I could not stand it, flew back, searched her everywhere, and did not find her. Desperately, I returned to my car, and there she sat! The return trip was an adventure. Arrived in Germany, it was initially very exhausting with a wild dog. Today Hilde is somewhat educated but idiosyncratic. Suki came to us in Sardinia. She had been abandoned and shot. Hilde and Suki liked each other. Strays seem to recognize each other. The dogs are a stroke of luck for our daughter: they comfort and entertain her and teach her what responsibility is. We have also learned: who wants to live with dogs, must make clear announcements!
Sam & Meike
I already wanted a collie as a child. Always. Lassie's disease. And when my life finally became such that I could hold a dog, Lassie was out of fashion. The collies today look different; the American guy is not that common. I searched for two years until I found a breeder who understood what I was looking for. Girlfriends said I should rather rescue a dog from the shelter, but when Sam was born, there was no turning back for me: he was the naughtiest of the litter - and the funniest.
Department head Meike Dinklage on life with animals
Recently I went for a walk with the dog in the fields. The dog sniffed at leaves and stalks, ran ahead, came back with a stick that I was to throw, and when I did not throw it, he flung it himself in the air and caught it. Then he drove through the bushes with another dog, I went on, sat down in a meadow, the dog came and lay down next to me. I scratched his fur, he stretched out, rubbed his nose in the grass and grunted contentedly. The sun was shining, a bird flew, bugs on a stalk, we saw the world with the same eyes, I thought of nothing and was in an incredibly simple way full of peace.
It's easy to be happy with a dog, dogs are good with people's needs. Probably life with a parakeet, a hamster or fish is less cuddly, but certainly for the people who choose these animals, for similar reasons inspiring. Man and animal are found. I think having found his pet is pretty much the most unspectacular happiness concept you can pursue.
Because an animal means us. Not balancing. Maybe he's in a bad mood, but never gets cynical or cheats on us. Animals bring us back to a pleasantly simple system of good and bad. Good: food, warm sleeping space, clean stable, species-appropriate entertainment, take care of yourself. Bad: hunger, boredom, filth, neglect, violence. So simple are the rules. In between: nothing. No undertones, no manipulation.
Animals are straightforward, provided we understand their language. Thinking is not enough, we also have to feel, to sense, to look closely, to try out, to use the imagination, to learn - in other words, what we seldom do in everyday life. We also learn about ourselves, because the ego that talks to the animal, with hands and feet, is a pretty unmoved. It's not about love. Pet owners who say their pet would love them, I do not think so.
Animals can not do that, not in a human sense, animal and human, that's a completely different category. Animals are not the better partners, they are different partners. I'm sure my collie does not love me, he just enjoys the benefits of having a life by my side, including the safety that comes with making the rules: Watch out for me. Watch me. That applies to each other. It is the foundation. It's great when you move towards each other from there. When I realize that he is completely with me there is nothing in between: he senses what is right now; there is an inner bond between us that even a thought of mine can guide him.
Not always natural, sometimes he chases squirrels on trees or barks the dog competition out of the street, then does not help an intuitive leadership, but only a thunderous no. But when my dog runs towards me in the evening, head and tail in the horizontal, the whole dog a straight, waving line, a wave of enthusiasm, I am completely happy. Sam makes me laugh, just like that, when he offers all the tricks he has learned in four years, because he wants a piece of cheese. When we roll on the lawn or play frisbee, I'm happy in an elemental way. Or when he is tired and turns on his back, all four of them in the air stretches, the whole dog only fur, and can be scratched. When I'm sitting on the sofa crying and he comes, looks at me and then nibbles on my sleeve. Not because he knows what comfort is, but because he realizes that a little contact can not hurt.
I have always noticed that I lack an animal, now it seems to me that I am complete. That, too, is not love in the human sense. But it's the feeling that there's something warm about me. I think it's great to be out and about with many dogs. I like it, I'm outside, it's relaxing, a luxury contact to life. The happiness with people always needs a framework: the trip to the sea, the moment at a dinner, when all satisfied and confused talking, the conversation in which one notices, the other understands one hundred percent, and every other sentence is pure knowledge. Intellectual happiness classified, valued. An animal does not say: That was nice, it does not compare, it rolls on its blanket at home and just waits until the next great thing comes.
Animals were always my refuge
I used to have cats. I fed and caressed them and padded them a cardboard box when they got a boy. Before that I had chickens, I come from the countryside, we had a yard. The chickens had names they listened to and were allowed to die of old age. When I came home from school, they were waiting for me at the farm access. I will always argue for my belief that chickens are clever animals. Before that I had pigs. Two piglets, according to the slaughtering rhythm, two new ones each year. But as long as they lived, I fed them and taught them tricks, one piglet placed the front hooves on the back of the other on command.
Animals were always my refuge.My cats helped me through puberty, I crawled with them in the barn and whispered my confused thoughts into their fur, I did not need a diary. My dog, today, brings his own life issues with him, Sam is - one says that when we travel together, we always negotiate. And he is cheerful and good-natured, he likes people; my husband goes regularly to a nursing home with him, the inhabitants are demented, they ask every 30 seconds, how the dog is called, how old he is. But when they stroke their fur they see their joy, and those who once had a dog themselves remember.
Since I have the dog, it seems to me that people are friendlier to me. I know half the street now, the other dog owners anyway, I say a lot more people Hello, you're public with a dog, and there's always a topic.
Actually, I found almost all new friendships that I have received in recent years, about the dog. Once I ran along the Elbe, it was cold, and it was raining, I was completely masked and met a woman, also with a collie. We walked on together, hood deep in the face, we did not look at each other, but told us about our life, which had a lot of parallels, not only because the collies are the same type. We have become friends, and it is one of the greatest new acquaintances of recent years. As simple as that.
