We are in Germany! Don't know about pets though.
All the different German states will have slightly different school holiday times.
You can look up the state you are interested in on www.schulferien.org - you can look at a few years in advance.
I think we all get the same number of days, they are just split up differently by the different states. Some states get a whitsun holiday which would be the equivalent of May half term, some get an autumn holiday that would be the equivalent of October half term. Maybe some get both, we don't though!
Our school year didn't start in August last year, and won't this year either, it has been early-mid September.
We are insured by public health insurance - DH pays directly from his salary and it covers the whole family, since I am a SAHM - if I was working I'd need my own insurance. Some doctors only take private insurance, but we've never had a problem finding someone with the public. If you opt for private (which you are only allowed to do it you earn over a certain amount) you can't change your mind and go for public instead unless you change jobs or your salary falls below the threshold. There are lots of different providers of public insurance.
We pay a fee for refuse collection, shared between all the flats in the building. You pay more for a bigger bin, but I don't know how much it is, it's part of a wealth of "additional costs" that we pay to the landlord each month. We get free bin-bags for the recycling from the town hall.
We can decorate our rental as we like, but we have to return it to white/neutral when we leave - I think that's fairly standard. Be warned that some (many) rentals don't include a fitted kitchen, and you have to buy your own or buy it from the previous owner.