The Muffin Man

I have to admit the dogs sleep with us.Watson would sleep with us only occasionally, he would sleep on the couch at the foot of our bed and would join us in the morning. He was a standard sized Dachshund and an extra large standard as it was so he took up a bit of room. Plus he would snore. Nothing is better than laying in bed and not being able to sleep because not only is your husband snoring, but the dog is cutting some serious wood too.I'm not quite sure exactly how it happened, Marlena always had Peach sleep with her and there were a couple of occasions she was away and she ended up sleeping with me. Flash forward I now have 3 Dachshunds all packed around me. Spaatz and Fooze may start next to Jerry but they end up next to me. I'm quite used to it now, just last weekend Jerry was away in Florida to see his mom and our kids, I was real glad to have them near. I know that many small breed owners and specifically Dachshund owners sleep with their dogs. I'm not worried about some non-dog lover reading this and thinking I'm weird. They wouldn't read this anyway. Getting back to the title theme, I know the behavior patterns of these dogs very well, as they do mine. Sometimes I try to deviate from the regular schedule of things gets them a little miffed. So the other morning Spaatz gets up and goes in the kitchen, this usually means he's gone for a drink of water and will be right back. Some time elapses, then I'm really starting to wonder, what is he into. I call him, no Spaatz. I call him again, still nothing. Then I call him with the I'm serious tone of voice, finally I hear the toenails coming, he hops up on the couch then over the end onto the bed. He seems to be still chewing something. I say to him "what have you been eating?", feeling pretty confident that there isn't any food laying about. I smell his breath, blueberry muffins! I said to Jerry "how could his breath smell like blueberry muffins?". He thinks briefly, there was a muffin in my coat pocket. Aha! not anymore. Spaatz went out for water, but his sensitive nose got him a bonus. Meanwhile Fooze had gone out to take care of any crumbs. They consumed the whole muffin, almost the whole paper wrapper, but left the plastic well cleaned. Note to self- If your going to leave food in your pockets in a house with dogs at least hang your coat up.

Spaatz aka Babyman

Spaatz, a name derived from my maiden name. If by some small chance you might wonder, any relation to General Carl Spaatz, the answer is yes. We always consider our dog names pretty seriously. When we hit on the right one its an aha moment. Spaatz was such and of course he has a laundry list of nicknames, Spaatzer, Spaatzie, Schpuutz, Spatzle, and naturally "babyman". He is Babyman, and it started when he was a puppy and has stuck. He is still full of puppy, loves to play with squeaky toys, tennis balls and he keeps a constant vigil at the back door for small woodland creatures that might be trespassing. Peachy was our number one hunter, but she has let Spaatz take the lead. He has lightning speed. I hope to race him possibly in the future. He needs intensive socializing though, his one drawback.
I had for a long time wanted a dapple dachshund to add to our pack. Dachshunds come in so many color combinations, not to mention coat types. Then we lost our Watson, which was very tough, fortunately Peach and Fooze were here for us, they missed him too. Sometime after that my daughter called from Florida, she had found a litter and was going to get a companion for her dapple longhair Rupert. She wanted to know if I was interested, there were some dapples in the group. I said yes, she said there was a dapple boy with one blue eye. That was for me, my in-laws had had a Husky with bi-colored eyes that I liked. She got a sister and a friend of hers got 2 black and tans. We got a bulk discount. Soon after she flew up with the two pups and we had a three pack again. Jerry was a little annoyed with me that I got this dog without discussing it with him. He wanted another wire hair. I wasn't ready to get a Watson replacement, I had been looking for a dapple before we lost Watson, plus he just brought Fooze home. He has gotten over it now, although I feel another wire hair coming.
Spaatz is a sweet boy that would like nothing better than to stand on your chest and push his face and neck against yours almost to where you can't breathe, then sneak some kisses or clean your nose for you. His sister does the same thing. His barking is getting better, I try to walk the pack everyday as weather permits. He sleeps with his head on my shoulder. I once mentioned to a woman who fostered dogs that I had Dachshunds, she said "oh Dachshunds sure do love their people". They sure do, and if you are fortunate to know that devotion, then you know how awesome it is and how easy it is to treasure these little dogs.

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.

Foozeball The Red

I thought today I would just mention Foozeball, who is a really sweet dog. We got him from the SPCA. My husband Jerry who has been the Dog Control Officer for our town for 10 years now was bringing strays to the SPCA at the time and they had acquired a red doxie named Georgie. They held it for him because we were Dachshund people. At the time we had Watson and Peaches. He said he wasn't even going to look at it. Then there came a day when he had to bring a stray up there and of course he looked at the dog. Then he brought him home for me to meet him. Well that was it, he never went back. He was a crazy pup when he arrived. We were discussing names, I thought something to go with Watson, maybe Sherlock or Hudson. Marlena, being the teenager she was said that was stupid and we should think of something else. I said as this dog was running around the house like crazy,"then why don't we call him Foozeball because that's what he's like". That was it, no more suggestions needed. I spell it differently because thats just me. He has many nicknames, Fooze, Foozer, Foozy-B, Foober, Foob, Foo, B, he comes to them all. He was so crazy when we got him, especially when Peachy was in heat and he wasn't fixed yet. It was averted, but she did have a false pregnancy where her breasts got bigger. We were worried, but nothing happened. Everyone has since been fixed. Now Fooze is the best behaved of the three, always first back to the house, great on a walk, which gives me hope for Spaatz as he matures. He's still an instigator with the barking, but all around a great boy.

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.