Wandering Wahls

During several years of our assignments overseas, our kids often asked about getting a dog. We always answered: “when we get back to America.” We saw too many hassles of traveling and PCS’ing with dogs in tow. But when we did get back to America, our 41-foot RV just felt too tight to share with pets. (Although that did not stop our kids’ constant pleas.)

So when we finally settled in to our home on five acres with deer grazing occasionally and hawks soaring overhead, we saw it only fitting to have not one but two dogs to make up for lost time. Our newest members of the family have quickly adapted to the Wahl lifestyle—but have taken “Wandering Wahls” to a new level.

Why is it that 5 acres is not enough for them? They have managed to escape our fully fenced property at least a dozen times. They visit neighbors (even the ones we haven’t met yet), and follow us any time we dare to leave them alone. We have patched the gaps, placed boulders in the holes, tried chicken wire below the fence—but “Houdini” and his sidekick still manage to wander.

Our neighbors suggested cayenne pepper along the fence-line. I guess we’d better make a trip to Costco.

Other than the $1200 estimate from the Invisible Fence company, does anyone have any other suggestions?

Yes, you read that right.

We recently had a bit of experience with the local non-military medical system – you know, the one that is in disarray. This was new to us. Living in Germany, we had all medical appointments and such on base. Well, let me add that we did experience one medical appointment on the German economy – and it was a great experience. We were visiting Garmisch, Germany and my mother-in-law needed a doctor’s appointment. The British hostess of our B&B called the local doctor and we had an appointment within an hour, and only a two block walk.

We saw the doctor; didn’t have a wait; he did some tests; and, we walked away with the prescription: all for about 30 euros. The best thing though – the doctor’s name was Dr. Seuss (insert Green Eggs and Ham jokes here: would you like your shots in house, would you like them with a mouse…).

Back in Colorado, my father is visiting and we had to go the local ER due to an eye problem he had. The doc was nice but couldn’t see behind my dad’s retina, so he sent us to one of their specialists. In the military clinics, I’m used to walking down the hall to see the specialist. Here, I have to drive five miles to see the specialist.

At specialist #1, we fill out the same forms we did at the ER and the doc takes the same initial tests as at the ER. Finally, we get to the “behind the retina” exam – he can’t see anything, so we are referred to specialist #2. (Isn’t this the reason we were sent to specialist #1 – are these people in cahoots?)

After a six mile drive, we arrive to more of the same forms and the same tests. Finally though, specialist #2 gets behind the retina and prescribes a blood test, and suggests bed rest and a follow up appointment.

We drive five more miles to the blood test (forgive me Landstuhl Medical Center for complaining about long walks down your corridors) and we’re done.

While the docs were all nice, the experience made me thankful for our military medical system – even if just for the electronic records system that eliminates filling out redundant forms and allows the specialists to know what has been done previously.

Oh, and my dad is fine.

We adopted two puppies to roam our 5 acres and because we promised the kids. I also thought they would be good to chase the voles away. However, they’ve only succeeded in nabbing 2 Magpies and 1 ground squirrel. The vole holes are still popping up.

This is a new experience for us because we withheld from obtaining pets during MC’s career due to the moves and being stationed overseas. There were too many stories about the hassles of PCSing with pets. So, now that we have settled and found ample land, we adopted the puppies.

One thing I never expected was to feel like we had toddlers again – the similarities are amazing. For one, we’re talking baby talk – “Aach, aach” or “Did you go potty? Number 1? Number 2?” (As if they would answer – it was the same with our kids as well, and they never answered either.) Along these potty lines, our trip took me back to toddler days as I walked through the campground with the dogs with poop scoop bags in my back pocket, just like I used to carry diapers around.

And the training takes me back to when the kids were toddlers – positive reinforcement (“Good boy, Rocky!”); everybody has a different opinion on training; they want to play when I want to relax, etc. And sometimes, they want to talk, talk, talk (well, bark, bark, bark).

Even still, all is good – every home needs a good dog or two. The kids love the two pups, they’re training them well (the kids are even training the puppies sometimes), and we have an inexpensive burglar alarm.