Today, I will tell you a very private and absolutely true dog story!

Then it was again Christmas. As every year, we had dumplings. Dumplings are usually home-made in our household.
The Christmas I am talking about was one where our family consisted or really many people, which is why we needed a particularly huge number of dumplings. In order to make it a little easier, a few ready-made dumplings out of the cardboard carton were added to the self-made ones for cooking. One of those packages had been sitting in the larder for some, and the expiration date had not yet arrived.
Well, it was bound to happen: the homemade dumplings were eaten up in no time – while nobody wanted the ready-made ones. Even though the ready-made ones looked like the ideal pictures from the cooking book – which is more than can be said about the homemade variety.
That was when the bell tolled for Rasputin! As always, he got the left-overs.
And then in happened: Rasputin, who usually ate everything, did not want the dumplings. They lay in his feeding bowl for days – without changing shape – and were not eaten.
Rasputin was a wise Dalmatian and a true friend through his entire dog life. I learned a lot from him. I, too, no longer eat ready-made dumplings. The nice waitresses in the Althaching restaurant are quite surprised about me not even ordering dumplings along with knuckle of pork!
RMD
P.S.
I filed this article under the category “fairy tales”, even though it is a true story. Rasputin’s other name was “pirate”, because he had a black patch around the right eye, which made him look like a pirate.
To my regret, I have no digital picture of Rasputin. Consequently, the Dalmatian you see on the picture is not my Rasputin. I took the picture from wikipedia, where Heinz Höfling published it under GNU licence for free documentation.


