Lara & Patrick
This portrait features Lara and Patrick, who live in Prenzlauer Berg. Here is their story, as narrated by Patrick.
I KNEW THAT I COULD NEVER LIVE WITHOUT A DOG.
The first picture shows my dog Lara. She’s a three year old Dalmatian. My first dog, also a Dalmatian called Ikarus, died at a young age, while another person was taking care of him. While Ikarus and I were very similar in character, it was more of a growing relationship between Lara and me. I knew that I could never live without a dog, but it was difficult to choose a new one. So in order to “not replace” Ikarus, I chose to get a female.
I got her at the age of 3 months and had regularly visited her before. From the beginning we started doing agility training in a dog training class. Last year we went on our first competitions, and with good results. Yet at the beginning of this year we weren’t able to continue as she got pregnant. I really have to say that having puppies was the best thing that could have happened to her. She learned so much during this time, and now she is really friendly towards almost any other dog.
I wasn't able to give away all of Lara's babies.
I wasn’t able to give away all of Lara’s babies. Two weeks after birth I already knew which puppy I wanted to keep. At first it was really hard to decide to take care of a second dog, because of my starting self employment and the unstable financial situation that goes with it. But then, selling dog food, I knew that at least they wouldn’t have to starve…
Maybe my dogs are going to turn out to be "neighbourhood dogs" ("Kiezhunde" in German) of Prenzlauer Berg
On the day before LilaLou – that’s my puppy’s name – was to be given away, I felt really sad about that fact so I decided to keep her. Now I am very happy about this decision.
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