It’s official. We are now taking applications for all those who would like to join the Ayla Fan Club. 🙂

While we were down in Bavaria this past weekend, Ayla made quite a few non-fur friends. She was on her best behavior and we basically seem to have worn her out completely over the weekend. On Friday night she got to see Stefan’s grandmother again. Although she did jump up on her once (there was a lot of excitement since there was a kitty hovering nearby as well) Ayla was quite good for the rest of the evening. And she was apparently very well behaved while we were at the Aerosmith concert on Thursday – thank God!

On Saturday evening we decided to go out to dinner and of course took Ayla along. It wasn’t all that warm out and the restaurant we went to has outdoor seating anyway. Stefan’s parents know the restaurant owner quite well (like most places they frequent – and this place happens to be at their tennis club so they are there very often) and he is quite the character. He prepares a mixture of German and Croatian influenced food and makes one hell of a steak. Ayla got very lucky because some of the younger tennis players didn’t finish their dinner after playing and the owner gave Ayla their left over chevapchichi. Needless to say she was a very happy dog after that. 🙂

There were also a couple of young boys who were really fascinated with her. One was a bit scared of her but she was about 3 times their size so that’s understandable. 🙂 Eventually they started tossing a tennis ball to her and she was catching them in her mouth, dropping them almost immediately and waiting for the next ball. This is an even better performance than we usually get from her…

While at the restaurant, almost all eyes were on Ayla. Two women would point and smile at her every time we went out to the parking lot for a pee break…and there was an apartment nearby with three young kids who were pointing and calling out “bow wow” to her. This is the common phrase kids here in Germany use for dogs. 🙂

Anyway, we figure it must be about time to start a fan club. Seems like wherever we go people want to talk to the big, furry black dog. Even Stefan parent’s who were not keen on us getting a dog AT ALL have now offered to puppy sit for us from time to time if we need to go away for an afternoon or perhaps even overnight. They are even willing to drive up to our place to watch her which is an offer we will almost certainly be taking them up on soon!

Here are a few photos for her fans…taken by a fan. When we had the housewarming party about a month ago, one of Stefan’s friends put his cap on Ayla and took these photos. Who could not love that face? 😉