Czechmatediary

You can get this miniature pot-bellied pig  (also called a “Tea-cup pig“) for 500 to 5,000 Czech Crowns, depending on their size. The smaller they are, the more expensive they get. Yet the price did not stop them to be one of the new favorite pets in the Czech households. They are supposed to be smart, affectionate and very clean! Watch the video below:

CZ: V Cechach se tyto miniaturni prasatka prodavaji za 500 az 5,000 Kc s tim, ze mensi prasatka jsou drazsi. Chrochtajici milacci tam jdou jako na dracku, stali se totiz novym oblibenym zvirecim mazlickem v ceskych domacnostech. Divite se? Maji pry byt velmi chytri, pritulni a take cistotni! Podivejte se na nize uvedene video: (more…)

The Czech ZOOs in Usti had an interesting visitor for a few days. An exhausted albino doe was caught by the local cemetery where she was chased and finally bit by some dogs. She was moved to Decin and became part of the animal crew that represents the unique geographical region of so called Czech Switzerland.

Albino does are very unusual in nature. Unfortunately, their unique coloring brings them much trouble. Not only  they are not liked and trusted by other animals but their lack of eye pigment causes problems with their sight and they are also very sensitive to light.
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This doesn’t have anything to do with anything Czech or Slovak whatsoever but you just have to see these ‘fashion’ pictures. I hope you get a good belly laugh out of it like I did; who knows, maybe you will get some good Halloween ideas out of it!

Click here to see more fashion accessory pictures.

PS: This is for real, the designer is not joking.

CZ: Nasledujici obrazky opravdu  nemaji nic co k docineni s ceskou nebo slovenskou kulturou, ale thole proste musite videt: posledni vykriky mody!!! Kdo vi, mozna ze z toho dostanete nejake napady na Helloweenovsky kostym!

Vice modni inspirace muzete najit zde (klinete zde).

PS: Jo a jen tak pro jistotu, tento navrhar to mysli naprosto vazne.

I found some terribly scary pictures to get you ready for this year’s Halloweeeeeeeeen. The bananas are my all-time favorite :0)

CZ: Vyhrabala jsem pro vas par hrozitansky strasidelnych snimku z jakychsi minulych Halloweenu, aby jste se naladili na tento rok. Ta banankova fotka je zatim moje nejoblibenejsi :0) (more…)

I have seen these dogs around but I just thought they were Chihuahuas.Well,  I was wrong! As one of you guys informed me (thank you Lydia!) they are called the Prague Ratters and as you might have guessed correctly according to the name, this breed was originated in Czech sometime before the 10th century. Today it is one of  the smallest dog breeds in the world ( 7 t0 9 inches tall and 6 to 9 lbs) and it can also be trained to use a litter box! Check out this cutie-pie’s history:

CZ: Kdyz jsem jeste zila v Cechach, tito pejsci behali vsude. Vzdycky jsem si myslela, ze jsou to cuvavy nebo miniaturni dobrmanci, ale diky jednomu z vas ted vim, ze jsem se mylila! Toto roztomile plemeno se jmenuje Prazsky krysarik a jak si jiz z jmena muzete domyslet, pochazi z Cech. Je to take jeden z nejmensich psich plemen na svete (vazi 6-9 poundu a meri 7-10 inchu), ktere chodi bezne na zachod na pisek pro kocky (litter box).

Prague Ratter History

As the breed is really so old, it is practically impossible to trace its early beginnings. However, Polish chronicler Galla Anonym wrote that Polish King Boleslav II The Brave (1058 -1080) became fond of the Ratter. He had two that came from Bohemia (the Czech lands). The chronicle says: “Not only Polish blood but also purely Slavonic blood, donated blood, circulates in the veins of our dogs”. As the king of Poland valued this gift, we can presume that it was a royal gift from prince Vladislav II. The French historian Jules Michelet mentioned in his work “Histoire de France” three ratting dogs came from the Czech lands. (more…)

Imagine getting up at 4 am somewhere in a quaint Czech village in order to get in couple of peaceful hours of fishing. And who knows, maybe you are going to be lucky enough to catch a carp or something! That’s what one of the Czech fishermen was thinking when he went fishing in a local river called  Drevnica. Boy, was he surprised when his first catch was a feisty South American piranha!! This kind of exotic fish did not get into the river by natural means; its owner must have let it lose because it probably became a nuisance in his aquarium. “Once in a while one of us (fishermen) catches a turtle that someone let lose but up to this point no one has had the pleasure catch piranha”, says the spokesman for the Otrokovice town hall.

The poor fish did not end up well, however. (more…)

Only about 7 years ago (2002) Prague underwent one of the most horrendous floods in the city’s history. Besides the historical downtown completely disappearing under water, the Prague’s zoo was flooded as well. The zoo staff managed to evacuate more than 1,000 animals, 800 birds, 150 reptiles and 100 mammals prior to the upcoming flood (making it the largest and the fastest evacuation of animals in the history of zoological gardens). Unfortunately, 14 mammals and 130 birds died during the floods, including the male seal Gastron, who swam more than 186 miles down the Vltava river to Germany, was resuced days later but died on the way back home thanks to exhaustion, stress and infection. Among the animals that had to be put down was 35-year-old Kadir (see image bellow), an elephant popular with zoo-goers, who became trapped by rising waters and could not be rescued. (more…)

What a ‘beauty’, right? Can you guess where was this picture taken? No, it wasn’t shot in some hot desert state like Arizona or Nevada; this spider lives in the Czech Republic! Him and 3 other spider species  are not only  very rare kinds in nature but they are also THE BIGGEST SPIDERS IN CENTRAL EUROPE (!!) and – let me repeat – they all live in the Czech Republic, namely in the county of Olomouc. All of these four guys are living happily together in one particular area without having the need  to compete over each other or eat each other up as it often happens in nature.

These spiders can grow up to 4 cm in diameter and their mandibles can be up to 1 cm wide. But don’t worry they are not poisonous and don’t like to bite humans -  they would rather snack on tasty Czech beetles and other bugs. (more…)

My good Slovak blogger friend Lenka (AKA SlovakMama) had a great idea. She created a website called ‘www.postaramsa.com‘ (meaning “it will be taken care of”) which allows visitors to search for caretakers for either their children or their elderly parents ( or pets!) and worldwide! So let’s say  you are a Czech or Slovak mom abroad and you are looking for a Czech/Slovak nanny. You enter your ad in and for free. Or you live abroad and have an elderly mom who speaks only Czech and you are looking for a Czech companion for her – you enter that in and for free. You get the point. Her website is brand new so there is no English translation as of yet but I am sure if you are in a need of help and cannot speak Slovak, you can contact her and she will be more than happy to help you out – she is great that way :0)

CZ: Moje dobra blogarska kamaradka Lenka (znama take pod jmenem SlovakMama) mela vyborny napad. Vytvorila webove stranky zvane ‘www.postaramsa.com’, ktere vam umoznuji inzerovat uplne zadarmo v pripade, ze potrebujete najit hlidani pro vase deti, nebo opatrovnici pro vase stare rodice, nebo vaseho pejska. Postaramsa zahrnuje i zahranicni staty, takze jestlize jste napriklad ceskou/slovenskou maminkou zijici v USA a hledate specificky pani na hlidani, ktera mluvi cesky/slovensky, toto je pro vas to nejlepsi misto, kde zacit. Nebo naopak, hledate praci jako osetrovatelka/au-aupairka doma nebo v zahranici? Udelejte to same!

Chotebor, a little quaint town in the Czech Republic, recently held the 4th Annual Championship in Dog Dancing. Not sure what “dog dancing” is? Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up myself. It is so far the youngest dog sport, “which mixes obedience, tricks and dance that allows for creative interaction between dogs and their owners”. One of the Dog Dancing Championship participants compares it to ice-skating: “The most important is the elegance and the synchronization of the moves”. Although the Czech Republic has currently only a handful of these dog-dancing enthusiasts, when compared to other countries, many of them have actually become very successful abroad. This year’s winners have become the Australian Sheppard named – now get ready for this – “All That Brandy Gentle Mate” (poor dog) and a chihuahua Anuska Vejvodova Dechristi; both dogs are owned by the same owner (OK, now everything makes sense!), miss Vanda Gregorova from Prague. (more…)