10 facts about the verpinscht Family
10 things you definitely did not know about us
Sometime in December the dogs, Rafael and I went for a walk in the city. Of course I also did a few stories. After that the smartphone was gone. With some bags in our luggage and slowly getting tired feet – and paws for sure – we finally went home. I took the Smartphone out of my bag, opened Instagram and checked my messages. One of them came quite unexpectedly.
„I saw you in town today,“ I read and immediately had panicky thoughts. I remember very well that I was wearing sweatpants that day because we had gone for a walk with Mojo and Rana and I didn’t feel like changing. You don’t want to know how much I regretted that at that moment.
From a scale of 1 to 10, how did I look like today? Did the dogs do something funny? Did I yawn without a hand in front of my mouth, or did I pop my head because my nose itched?
Either way, I had similar thoughts after I discovered this message. Don’t get it wrong: I don’t have the goal to appear perfect on the outside and dogs don’t have to be perfect either (because they are not), but it is still a strange feeling not to know in which situation you have just been seen. As they say: First impressions count.
So if you are active on social media, you are in some way in public life. Everyone can look at your profile, your photos, your stories. That’s the reason why after 4 years of Instagram I still find it hard to tell a lot about us in stories and articles on Instagram. I find it kind of creepy not knowing who and how many people are actually looking at or reading through it. And this although some of our followers are interested in participating in our lives. Of course I’m happy about that and surely some of you have already noticed that I’ve already taken a (for me very big) step to tell a little bit more under contributions on Instagram. With this blog post I want to go one step further and tell you some facts about the Verpinscht-Family that you surely didn’t know yet.
- We always wanted a dog, but…
…not until after graduation and when we moved in together.
That’s what Rafael and I always said. Then we met Mojo. This little black dog with big ears who was desperate for a new home. One thing led to another and we adopted our first dog 7 years ago. At the age of 18. While the Fachabi was waiting. Oh and by the way, we also lived with our parents. First of all it comes differently, secondly as one thinks!
2. anti social media
It’s hard to believe, but I was against Instagram and Co. I was absolutely against putting a profile on Instagram. But when you get right down to it, I still don’t have a profile for my personal life.
3. Rafael and photography
At some point Rafael got a taste for photography. He wanted his own reflex camera. In the end, he bought a system camera from SAMSUNG and worked diligently with it until Mojo became his main model. He discovered animal photography for himself and got me hooked. Basically, we have Rafael to thank for the account Verpinscht and all the fuss around it.
4. part-time model Mojo
Long time ago, Rafael, Mojo and I were on our way to the daily gas round. A woman walking towards us said to me, „Excuse me, is that a midget pinscher?“ Whereupon I nodded and the woman introduced herself as a professional animal photographer who was currently asking for black dogs for a photo series. Mojo has an extraordinary face for his breed, she mentioned. Such sentences make dog mamas by the way quite proud, although one does not contribute at all to the appearance of his fur nose.
Urheber: Nina Wallenborn (https://www.nina-wallenborn.de)
5. your own first house thanks to Instagram
„Wat?“ or „Ne ehrlich?!“ are always the first reactions when the headline leaves my lips and I tell how it came to our Hobbit cottage. Through Instagram we have already made some friends. So also with Ina from D.Dogs740, a collar & leash manufacturer from Düsseldorf. At the same time Ina was looking for an apartment with Rafael and me to move in with her boyfriend Lukas. The two of them just moved one house further on. The old home became free and was looking for new tenants. Now you know what comes next: Exactly. Rafael, the dogs and I moved into what was then Lukas‘ house. My own first house thanks to Instagram and as a little icing on the cake there are friends as neighbours. It’s a good thing that I didn’t stand firm on point 2.
6. the second dog should become a pedigree dog
Dog owners always tell how wonderful the puppy season is, the contact to the breeder and the meetings with litter brothers and sisters. With Mojo as a second-hand dog we could never join in such conversations. To experience the life of your own dog from the beginning must be a nice feeling and that’s why we wanted a pedigree dog as a second dog. Meanwhile our household counts three dogs, which were all older than 5 months at the time of adoption. Today I still sometimes think about how nice it would be to know Mojo, Rana and Mateo from an early age. But there is a feeling that is stronger than this thought. I call it my personal happiness. That’s how it feels for me when you give a dog from the animal protection organisation a home.
7. Rana cannot be alone
Rana was born in a killing station and came from there to a private shelter in Portugal. She was with many dogs all her life and never really alone. This did not change with our adoption, because Mojo was already part of our family. Rana does not know how to be really alone. If Mojo or Mateo are with her she has no problems at all. But if she has to stay at home all by herself, she starts crying and howling after a short time and lies down in front of the door.
8. mojo is not my dog
…strictly speaking, Rafael is the rightful owner of Mojo. He’s the one who fell head over heels in love with Mojo. At the time, it wasn’t even clear that Mojo was looking for a new home. As if it was fate!
9. Funfact B.A.R.F
Now it’s getting fun. Before we started with the raw feeding, we had high-quality dry food that I was convinced of. The BARF-trend did not pass me by, I just had no interest in it. Rafael did. He spent days trying to convince me. Eventually, he did. In the beginning I didn’t feel like dealing with the subject at all, portioning and putting together the individual elements of the raw feed and finally ordering them. Today I enjoy trying out different kinds of meat and offering the dogs a varied diet.
10. my dream dog
The Belgian Shepherd Dog – or Malinois – is my dream dog breed since I met the first of his kind. Nevertheless I know that these dogs do not fit into our lifestyle and I could not do them justice. Until I met Mateo – the rest you already know.
