Sweet Fluffy Muffins

 Oh Sandiepoo, so sweet and funny. She is Miss Fluffy Muffins, and we love her. Not the sharpest tool in the shed by any means, but the sweetest by far. I usually keep Miss muffins trimmed up, except for the signature beard and eyebrows that let us know that we have a wire haired dachshund.

Right now though she has gone full "O-Cedar", and I let it happen. Ordinarily in the winter I will keep her groomed so she doesn't get matted and we keep all that fur under control. Then she wears a sweater.

This year I had intended to shave her, but kept putting it off. Then it was so dang cold I decided to let her go with the fur. I know I will regret this at some point. I don't want her to go on full mop like before. Here she is, her first winter with us. Now, I at least keep her "nosehairs" trimmed so we can see her eyes

All that fur does give her protection from the elements. She goes out in the cold and snow and basically has a good time rolling around. The boys are both smoothies and not up for the real cold.

Spaatz gets to shivering out in the cold if he's not busy with something. I would love to put a sweater on him, but he just hates any type of clothing at all. His body language stiffens up and he is miserable until you take it off. Fooze always has some type of shirt or sweater on. He is getting pretty old now at nearly 14 and really would rather not go out in the cold if he can get away with it. Believe me, he tries.

Soon it will be getting warmer and we will have to think about giving Sandie the big shave. It will take me over and hour and there will be fur everywhere, including stuck to my nose.

She behaves pretty well during the process. Getting her legs done nicely is the biggest challenge. That and her undercarriage. Ever try to shave the underside of a dachshund? There's not a whole lot of room

Afterwards she is so sweet and "doughy" and she runs around like a new dog and is so happy. It makes it all worthwhile. Whether her coat is short or long she's always the sweetest little muffin you'll know.

Foozie, Spaatz and Sandie, aka Miss Fluffy Muffins

Higher Than a Dachshunds Back 2015

Yes, it's February once again here in the northeast as well as the rest of the world. But once again we're being treated to lots and lots of snow. Now I don't live in Boston, so I suppose I shouldn't complain, but as you can see I have to maintain my dachshund "habitrails". Probably the worst is when it's first thing in the morning and it's been snowing all night, and the dogs want to go outside. I have to make them wait however, tempting it is to let them step off the bottom step and disappear into the snow. That would only bite back when they come back in all snowbound. So in my pajamas I don the "sno-racer" boots with the velcro closers and a big 'ole coat that fits a large man, and head out. It's dark, snowing and cold. About 6 inches fell overnight. Good thing it's real powdery. We have a little fenced in area, for the dogs where I start to scoop out some tunnels for them to go out and do their "business". As you can see the piles of snow are getting rather high. I find myself having to now shovel it over the fence because it's now as high as the fence and soon probably Spaatz will figure he can go over the top and pursue the squirrel further than before. Except he'll probably sink in and disappear.

Miss Peaches and Sandie, my resident wire hairs tend to get rather snow bound. If it's wet snow we're in trouble, because their fur acts like velcro and you can't brush it off. In fact you can hardly pull it off. The other day I had to take Sandie and set her on a towel on the edge of the sink and I tried to pull it, but that didn't work. So I grabbed the snow and melted it in my hands. This process is a little tedious, good thing she's small. She however, didn't mind and was enjoying being held and let me do what had to be done, lest the house end up looking like a sprinkler system had been running.









Meanwhile, everyone is doing their best to stay warm. Dachsunds are experts at it.

Dachshunds got the snow storm blues

Well if anyone has noticed, it's been snowing, a lot lately. I don't know about you, but we have between 2 and three feet on the ground. That doesn't include the horrendous piles made by shoveling and the snow plows. We're all like a bunch of rats in a big snow maze. So naturally the dachshunds being short in stature have it particularly difficult. They wanted to go out the other morning, and I was really tempted to just let them go because I knew it would be amusing when they took that first step and disappeared into the snow. But I would have to go save them and they would be all snow bound and that would be a mess. So I told them to wait while I went out and dug them some channels to get around the yard through. They seem to enjoy the little habitrails, each corner is a new adventure.

Not all dug out yet

So the doggies are doing a lot of laying low. They are good at that, plus being small dogs they utilize the space of the house to get exercise inside when the weather prevents spending much time outside.

Dreaming of warm sunshine and green grass.