Don't Hate me because I'm Beautiful

Miss Dirty Feet Again, a photo by batterie61 on Flickr   Ahh, Miss Peachy, she has quite the pose going on here, all she REALLY wants is her tummy rubbed. Unfortunately for her she is about to get a bath because she has been out trouncing around in the mud in the backyard. I know we have had very little snow this winter, but we have had plenty of rain starting before the hurricanes that hit the northeast last fall. She just manages to find it or look for it. On our walk this morning she explored a drainpipe that needed a quick run through. My theory is its a wirehair thing. My old wirehair was the same way, but my two smoothies are not. Fooze in particular will tippy toe around the puddles while Peach cruises through. I might as well stay used to it, I aim to find another wirehair. This can be a tall order, but on I aim to fill.

Enjoying the sun together

Enjoying the sun together, a photo by shimmering magic on Flickr.

I just love wirehair Dachshunds, because Watson is always in my heart. I know we will get another wirehair someday, they have a special temperment. I am sharing this awesome photo by Ester Hooff from Flickr where all my Dachshund photos are. Happy Daylight Savings Time! Check your clocks.

**Dachshund Art**

I am happy to share this bit of Dachshund art. I am particularly proud of my mailbox which is a mosaic glass on metal. I'm working on a "life size" Dachshund in broken china which I'll post when its finished.

Spring is about to Spring!!

Spring is definitely on its way, as the first Crocuses are signaling. This signal is lost to the pack, just returned from our walk. Feeling a little pooped are we? Fooze tends to be a little camera shy, hence the bowed head. Why would a dog not like having his picture taken? Its certainly not a bad hair day. Anyway we are looking forward to all the flowers that will be coming up and spending more time outside. Happy Spring!

Dinnertime For Foozeball!!

Sweet Foozy has this thing he does when he's anticipating something, mostly food. He spins around in circles. Its hard to capture it, but he does bring a new level to excitement when I come home and its time to eat. This video will gave you some idea why he is called Foozeball.

Dog Walking and Dog People

 

For me I can't understand people who don't like dogs, especially Dachshunds, then you have no sense of humor. I mean you have to admit, they're just funny, just wait 'till you get to know one, it gets better. I mean I do actually understand being fearful of them, I myself had to run the gauntlet everyday to get home from school. I lived at the end of a dead end, then my driveway was another 500 feet long. The neighbors on either side of us both had 2 large German Shepards. I was chased by these dogs on numerous occasions. The last run in I had with them, the dogs on the right side of us started to advance towards me, I didn't run, but sternly said"no doggie". They stopped in their tracks, my voice had echoed off the house, I hastily made tracks home. Shortly after this these dogs were put down as it was found they were behind the killing of sheep at a nearby farm. Obviously, this could have a much different ending, fortunately for me I adverted disaster, I still love dogs, even German Shepards. You must always respect dogs no matter their size, but especially the big ones. But I think there are a lot of people out there that just don't know what they're missing. Dachshunds would like nothing better than to be joined at your hip. I don't mind this most of the time.

When I go out with the pack for our walks you definitely will know who is a dog person and who isn't. I mean I've got three Weinerdogs, any real dog lover will at least smile as they go by. You have the non-dog lovers on one end, who barely give me the space to walk, all self-absorbed staring straight ahead. Then there are those who give you a little space because then don't want to mess up their day by hitting someone. Next are people who like dogs, they may have one, who smile maybe a nod. Then we get into dog people who give you plenty of room, smile, wave maybe even a toot of the horn. The next group, plenty of room ,big smile, they slow way down so that then can admire the dogs. The last group, big smiles, stop if possible to say how much they love your weinerdogs, which you must reply "thank you". I sometimes get asked about Peaches because many people are unaware of the different coat types Dachshunds come in particularly the wirehair. Ha! they're the best! They're all great, but my two sweetest were and are my wirehairs. Watson and Peaches always so easy with the wagging tail.

The photo above is our group from Christmas, including Spaatz, Loreli, Rupert, Peaches, Foozeball and Olivia. This walk was mostly a trail hike which the dogs love, but we had to go on the road for a little while to get back to the car. When you've got 6 Dachshunds you do attract some attention.

Sweet Peaches

Sweet Peachy, she is my girl. She is the alpha female here. This is kind of incredible considering her beginnings with us.
Her story starts in 2006, we had Watson, my daughter Marlena insisted she wanted her own mini wire haired Dachshund. I thought the likelihood of us finding a mini wire hair pretty non-existent. You see smoothies all the time and some long hairs but wires, not really. Anyway, time goes on, its December. We get this ad paper called the Pennysaver, I usually look through it for whatever, they have interesting horoscopes. The pet section actually had an ad where a person was selling two Dachshunds, a smooth and a wire. I quietly showed this to my husband, he called , thought we might go down on the weekend to see the dog. We sat down to dinner, all I can think about is that if we are really interested we better move now. Turned out Jerry was thinking the same thoughts. After dinner Marlena went upstairs, Jerry called the woman back and said we would be down tonight. We had mentioned none of this to Marlena. I called up the stairs, told her we were going on a "dog call", Jerry being the dog warden, I occasionally do ride shotgun. We had to drive to the next county, this lady was in the sticks. We found the place, it was dark, but it was an older home real close to a stream, you could hear it rushing.
The home was clean but the lady had quite the menagerie. Cats, dogs, fish, she was a vet tech and decided to downsize a bit. In the small living room you didn't notice at first but there were several wire crates with dogs in them kinda tucked behind the furniture, Everyone was quiet. The dog we came to see was in another room. She brought out a little red wire hair puppy, 9 months old, very,very quiet. She seemed nice enough, kinda timid but not alarmingly so. We had brought Watson with us so we asked if we could let them meet. I got him out of the van, I think we let them meet on the porch. That went well so we chatted briefly outside that we would take her. We went back in and said we wanted to take the dog. She said she was asking 375 for her, I said I have 300 cash in my pocket. She considered for half a second and said okay. So we thanked her and piled in the van and headed for home. We talked names a little on the way home, maybe Pumpkin, she is a orangy-red color. Then I knew Marlena would call her Peaches, she had a thing for peaches and well it seemed like the right name.
When we got home I called Marlena downstairs. When she came down I handed her the puppy and said Merry Christmas!. She was quite astonished and basically started to hyper-ventilate. I told her she was scaring the dog. She calmed down, but she was very happy.
What we didn't realize about Peach was exactly how timid she was. She was afraid of her own shadow, leaves blowing outside, every little sound. When I would take her out she would take forever to do her business because she was terrified of every little thing out there. She also didn't like men. Jerry had a bruised ego for awhile, never had a dog avoided him so . It took a few months but she did come around to him. In fact I am happy to say Peaches has had a full turnaround. Once in awhile something might spook her but she is an outgoing little huntress, and the top dog here now. We have been able with Watson's help to bring out her true Dachshund nature. I think in a way we rescued her because she never would have gotten the attention she needed where she was, and now she is the leader of her own Dachshund pack.

The Royal Protector of Shoes

Watson had this thing about shoes. He really liked them a lot. I sure it has to do with smell, but one thing for sure it was a job that he took very seriously. He would guard our shoes, he would sleep on top of our shoes and if anyone got close he would growl earnestly. I mean I could get my shoes from him, but anyone else but us, forget it. I always said that we should hide the valuables in our shoes because Watson was vigilant about the shoes.  

We used to visit my parents on Cape Cod often. One day Jerry and I were out and my parents were going to go for a walk. Upon going to the closet to get their shoes a growling noise emanated from inside. This growling would only increase with any attempt to remove shoes from the closet.Fortunately mom and dad knew of Watson's quirk and found this kind of amusing. They would just go for a walk later. They were dog lovers too. I honestly don't think Watson would hurt anyone, but he put on a good show. He had found a job he thought needed doing, he was self employed.                       

Post Muskrat Showdown

So the dogs are healing well since the Muskrat Showdown. I am very happy about this, don't need anymore vet bills. Foozeball's back also seems to be improving, that's a huge relief. I told my daughter, sister and mother the tale. My Mom said " I hope they learned something from this". I said "yeah, that sure was heck of a lot of fun, can we do it again tommorow". The one photo shows the two wounded hunters looking for the next critter. I am sure glad Jerry was home to dispatch the muskrat, it would have been a little rough for me to do. I can kill bugs easily enough, but when you start to increase in size and add fur I get out of my element. I can bake a pie or decorate a cake without looking. I make or create, not destoy. If it meant my dogs safety I would find a way. Think mother bear.

My Three Doxsons Take on Muskrat

Well, what was just supposed to be a lazy Sunday morning got rather crazy. I was sitting at the desk reading the comics on-line as I do everyday when the dogs started raising a ruckus. I let them out, its usually about the birds, or occasionally there might be a squirrel to chase. They might tree a squirrel, but Spaatz doesn't understand he's not a bird dog. Today they ran out way into the backyard as usual but there was a pretty good size critter in the thicket on the edge of the property. It looked like a big rat. Foozer hadn't run as far and was doing some business by a birdhouse in the neighboring field. That's when the critter picked the poor timing to come out. Fooze spotted him and sent out the alarm, the critter ran back into the thicket, Spaatz came a running and then Miss Peaches and it as getting really crazy in the thicket and I ran to get my husband and I told him the dogs had what I thought was a big rat in the thicket cornered. He grabbed the pellet gun and went out. I turned the stove off. The 3 dogs had what Jerry said was a muskrat cornered in this heavy vined brush. Fortunately no leaves. It was a very tense situation, barking, yelping, I suppose the muskrat may have been crying out too. Jerry was able to get a pellet off, it wounded him, but the Peach wanted to finish him off and the melee' continued. The 2nd shot finished him, Peaches made sure he was done. We managed to get them to stand down now, Jerry grabbed the body and I got the dogs inside. I wanted to wash Peach immediately as she had what I thought was muskrat blood on her face.( I've had to do this task with Watson), unfortunately she didn't stay where I left her and proceeded to go in my room and get blood on the couch and on some pillows.Then my daughter called, I wanted to talk to her, but this was a really bad time and I would call back. I then got Peaches in the shower and her feet were all muddy, but the blood on her face wouldn't stop. That's when I realized she was wounded. Big puncture in her snout. We washed her with antibacterial soap and doused it with peroxide. Later when she was dry and calmed down Jerry put some ointment on it. We're not worried about rabies, they all had their shots this past fall, but some other infection. Plan to keep close eye on it, may call vet Monday. Realize later that Spaatz also had bite in his face too, there wasn't any blood although it was kinda deep. He really doesn't seem bothered by it. Peachy has it a little worse, some swelling. So they had their excitement for the day, and after the mess was cleaned up we had breakfast.