Another sleepless Night

 There are nights when I get no sleep whatsoever. This is due to the medication I take. it;s something that you get used to but can become tiresome. There are times when it affects your judgement. This morning was one of those times.

 Dolly and i had hardly gotten out the backdoor when we were confronted by the sound of a dog in pain along with the sound of an aggressive dog attacking. This was coming from one of our neighbors backyard where they keep a dog tied up. It sounded to me as if the tied dog was being attacked by roaming dog.

 Dolly got angry. Something had upset the balance of things here in Mokane and she decided to go stick her nose in the affair. I got scared when she refused to obey me. I did not want her in that fight. I followed her for a distance and I was eventually able to call her to me. We were close to the fight but it was blocked from my view by bushes. From what I saw one dog was trying to give up and submit, The other wanted to press the attack.

 When you live in a tiny rural town with no law enforcement there are situations that happen that you have to take care of yourself.  There is no county dog catcher and the nearest law enforcement is 15 miles away.  My county is the third largest in the state. Sometimes it takes the law a long time to get here and they don't like dealing with dog issues.

 My neighbors were not home to defend their dog. They were at work. i got angry and wanted to help the dog being attacked so I took Dolly home and started grabbing some things taht might be useful. The first thing I grabbed was a cannister of Udap Bear Spray which is a fogging pepper mace used on Grizzly bears up North to run them away without killing them. I decided to bring a pistol as a backup. The only ammo I could find quickly was 9 mm so I took my Ruger 9 mm semi auto. I was not happy with my choice. I have more faith in the Udap Bear Spray than the 9 mm.

 I don't like firing a gun in town. too many things can go wrong.  You can get in legal trouble and I take gun safety very seriously. You are far better off not firing it and only using it as a last ditch defense. I figured that if a dog would press an attack on a dog who was trying to give up might just attack a human too. My goal was to prevent my neighbors dog from being killed.

When I got outside there was silence. I got on the John Deere and  drove over there fully expecting to find a dead dog.  My Ruger was in a shoulder holster so that my hands would be free to use the Bear Spray.  Dolly was riding with me in the seat. That was poor judgement on my part.

When we arrived at the area of the fight I stopped, shook my head, and said out loud; "Carl you D__n Fool" In my tiredness what I thought was a bad dog fight was actually a lovers quarrel. Dolly expressed her displeasure of the situation by going " BRRAFFF!" at them in her loudest bark.  This terrified the two so much that even the tied up dog tried to run away. Just one of those two dogs would have made five of dolly. 

myself i was hppy that there was not an aggressive stray dog running loose in town.

goodnight folks I relly got to get some sleep.

Little Miss Manners forgets Her Manners

 I love taking Dolly with me on trips in to town. She is normally no trouble and I like taking her into dog friendly businesses.  I have even sneaked her in to places where dogs are banned and she has yet to betray me by barking.

 One such dog friendly place is a business called Tobacco Cheaper in Fulton MO. They have dog treats that Dolly loves. Normally she turns her nose up at dog treats. She will only take them from a stranger shes decided she likes. She won't eat them in front of that person. She will take it out of sight of human eyes and bury it. She might dig it up later and eat it then after it has marinated in the ground for at least two weeks.

 I stopped in that store yesterday. The fellow behind the counter gave her a new type of treat. She turned her nose up at it. It was an Old Roy Barkin Bacon treat. he had giver her one big piece. She will not eat big pieces of food. She likes small bits or you have to break it up for her. I took the treat and broke it up. After I fed her the first bite she almost completely forgot her manners.

 Her habit is to wait patiently for food. Yesterday i thought she was going to take the whole piece from my hands. When you hand feed her she is very careful to not bite your hand. In fact when she takes the food your hand feels as if it was given a gentle kiss. When I fed her the Old Roy treats she  almost bit my hand several times.

 When we left I asked the fellow for a couple more treats which he did give me. I said to Dolly "Lets go". She charged out the door, slid to a halt, then ran back in. She went directly to the guy at the counter and put her front paws on him. Our manners had returned. I told the man"That's her way of saying Thank You!" he was impressed.

 Another one of her habits is to not bother food that you have in the cab of the truck even if that food is for her. I can go off and come back later to find that the food has not been touched. I hid one of the Old roy treats in the console. I stepped out of the truck for a minute and when I looked back in she had the whole big piece of treat in her mouth happily chewing away at it.

 I was going to buy her a bag of these treats. Last night when I posted this story on Facebook someone reminded me that it is not a good idea to buy anything with the name of Old Roy. Dolly had gotten so excited over this treat that I had forgotten that. I had also forgotten that dogs really love food that is bad for them. I have read stories about where some brands of dog food actually come from. I grew up on a farm and it takes a lot to surprise me. I knew dog food came from rendering plants that pick up waste meat. What I did not know was that they also pick up dogs and cats from kill shelters and vets offices. The medication used to put them to sleep does not always break down in the rendering process. They also don't bother to remove flea collars from the dead pet before rendering.

 I think Old Roy Products still come from rendering plants. I'd rather pay a few dollars more for dog food that does not use this process.

Dolly Taught Us To Do a Trick.

This post is a bit tricky to do without giving the little surprise twist away right at the beginning. I like to save those for either the end of the story or near the end . I will say that having a dachshund as a pet can be a bit complicated at times.

 Gretchen loves to stay up late watching YouTube videos or chatting with her friends on the Backwoods Home magazine Forums. There are some good folks  there and we have made friends that without the net we'd have never known existed.

 It was midnight and Dolly came trotting out of the bedroom in a very happy mood. She walked up to where Gretchen was and sit down. About the only time she barks at us is when she needs to potty and even then her habit is to breeze right past you to go to the back door and bark. If she wants or needs something else she will come to one of us, sit down, and look at us quietly. There is no paw on the legs or anything to get your attention. She just sits patiently. 

 That particular night she had her little grin on her face. I call it a grin but it's actually the look she has in her eyes plus her body language. She was happy about something.

 When Gretchen saw her she did the "Hi how ya doing Dolly?" routine. Dolly remained seated It was obvious she needed something.  At times like these we ask her questions like "Are you hungry?" "Do you need to potty?"" Can i pick you up?" She got no response from her questions. When can't guess what she wants we say "OK Dolly Show Me! Show Me!"  Well she did get a response then. 

 Dolly led Gretchen to the kitchen where she stared at the kitchen sink. Gretchen said " Oh you are thirsty." "The water bowl is full Dolly but let me get you some fresh."  This comment produced some tail wagging so we were on the right track. Gretchen re-filled the water bowl but Dolly would not drink. She kept glancing at the sink. Gretchen says "You don't like the water bowl any more?" Dolly did not respond but she still looked at the sink. We were back to a guessing game. All of us talk to Dolly like we are talking to another human."  We don't expect an answer but I think she understands a bit more than we realize.

 

 Sometimes a bit of inspiration helps. Gretchen dug out my old green  coffee mug. The one I quit using because I was afraid I'd break it.That particular mug is no longer sold. I used to take it to work with me. Gretchen filled it with water. Dolly drank huge gulps of water out of it for a long time. Her usual habit even when she is thirsty is to take several short laps and walk away. These were not laps they were gulps and when she was finished she did the "Oh my humans are so smart !" performance with several "Thank You!" looks thrown in. She gets happy when we figure out something she's trying to tell us. 

 I used to take that mug outside with me in the morning. Sometimes Dolly would steal coffee out of it. Sometimes I'd let her have a little.

 Now here is the twist I was talking about earlier. I quit using that cup four years ago. In fact we did not even own Dolly then. She was owned by my next door neighbor. I took it out during the summer when Dolly hated our family. We eventually became friends and Dolly came over every day to visit. Like grew to love and love grew to a deep love. That summer has a lot of good memories. When the neighbors divorced that fall Dolly decided that I was going to be her new owner. I retired the coffee cup that fall.

 So I had a bit of a mystery on my hands. I know that a smart dog will remember somebody they love for years. I have used several coffee cups since then. She should have forgotten that cup a long time ago. It was only used for a short time in the mornings. Better yet what caused her to remember it?

 I think I know but it's just a theory and another twist to the story.  Dolly had been asleep. I think she had a dream about it. I know she dreams by how she acts when she sleeps on my shoulders. She moves her legs as if she's running, her tail wags, and on rare occasion she even barks. It's not a full bark, it's more like a sleepy "Burrrff " I think that night her mind had gone back to that happy summer when she was still a pup.

 We have not seen her use the water bowl for a few days now. In fact she even quit policing it. She lets the cats do as they wish with it. However every night when it is around midnight she comes out of the bedroom and wants water from my old coffee cup.  She gets it in the morning too.  This has turned out to be a good thing. Dolly has dry skin and she's now drinking more water on a daily basis than she used to. 

 Dolly is the most unusual dog I have ever owned. She is also the best and we all love her very much. I believe she loves us more.

 

The Intimidator

My little Doxie seems to have numerous rules that she lives by and expects others to obey.

Near the top of the list of these rules is one that must go something like this; All dogs that enter into our yard must be intimidated. Over the years she has perfected this into a fine art. She just calmly and matter of factly glares at them until they go into their submissive posture. She does not bark when she is really serious about doing this. Not only does she not bark, she does not move either. We stand there like a statue with our tail up stiff and high. I don't know how to describe her facial expression except to say it's a very cold one. Whatever it is that she does must be very un-nerving to some dogs because they sometimes go running in the opposite direction. When they do she explodes. It's like she decided " AHA!""I KNEW that S.O.B. was up to no good!!"

It was a day or two ago that I finally realized that this behaviour is only for dogs that are bigger than she is.

Two Chiuaua's entered the yard and approached me. Dolly intercepted them before they could get to me. Once they met up it was like "You guys are my size!" "Lets get to know each other." Her tail dropped and there was much sniffing of each other. The only thing she would not allow them to do was sniff her butt. It was basically a friendly exchange. When they left the yard she did not bark at theml

A few days before that a big dog came into the garden, Dolly moved in to cut him off from me. She was having trouble running because I had just tilled. Her little legs were sinking in all the way. She had such a momentum going that she could not stop when she got to the dog. She wound up popping the other dog square in the butt with her nose by accident.

The other dog had not seen or heard her. When Dolly popped her she immediately laid down on the ground n a submissive posture. Dolly just stood there with that little grin of hers on her face. It was like she was saying "Now this is more like it.""I hardly had to work at all to show this one who the boss is."

A few days before this my neighbor brought her mini doxie to visit her mom. When the dog saw Dolly it went into a barking frenzy. It charged at Dolly several times to drive her off. Dolly stood there like she was saying " This is some kind of joke right?"  Dolly likes other Dachshunds. Her tail was not up and in fact she was giving off signals that another dog should have interpreted as friendly but not submissive. The barking Doxie was raised in a puppy mill and does not seem to understand body language.

In spite of the tiny dogs behaviour Dolly just stood there and tried to be friends with it. This makes me happy to know that Dolly is not a bully. Her intimidation routine is a self defense action. 

Barrel Racing Video Wiener Dog.mov

There is Always Something new

Dolly has developed a new habit. It started when I planted some sweet corn in our second garden which is across the street behind my neighbors home. I can access the garden by way of he alley that runs next to it. To save my back and knees I ride over on my John Deere GT245 riding mower.

I'll start the mower up and head out of the garage. If I stop and offer Dolly a ride at this point she will refuse.  When I drive on she will follow. She follows as if she's going on a great adventure with me. Some days she struts, other days she prances. It's as if she is saying "Look at us!" I'm  with my wonderful master and we are going exploring!"

As soon as we arrive she will go on patrol. Patrol is serious business to her. The area must be checked and cleared of any threats to her master. If she could talk I'd ask her how a 10 pound dachshund is supposed to defend a man who is 6 foot 6 inches tall and weighs 300 lbs.

Once the area is clear of threats it has to be checked again for new scents. We have to see how many critters have been in the area and file away that information in her mind. She's a good little tracker. Just this morning I spotted her tracking my son who had just returned from a walk. She did not know he left and she loves going on walks with him.

While she's doing all this I'm usually doing various things in the garden. Most days it don't take long and to be honest I really don't have to do it daily but I do it anyway. When I'm done I'll fire up the John Deere and head out. This is the point where Dolly will jump on the mower and climb up on my lap.

I know this sounds dangerous but Dolly has her own very strict rules on how this is to be done. Rule number one is never jump on the mower when it is moving. Rule number two is; Get away, far away from the mower if Mr. Carl has the mower blades running. Rule three is get the heck off the mower if Mr.C turns the blades on when you are riding. I did not train her to do these things...She trained herself. the only part I play is to praise her when she does this.

Once she's on the mower with me she will plant her rear legs in my lap and park her front legs on the steering wheel. When stranger sees us for the first time they usually stop and take a second look because it looks like she is steering. If i have to turn the steering wheel she will move her feet accordingly. This don;t work on sharp turns. At those times I lift her off the wheel with one hand and turn with the other.

Normally it's a short ride back home. She enjoys the ride so much that I just go ahead and make it a nice long one. We will drive along and she will occasionally function as the horn. If anything gets in the way of the mower she will bark at it. If we get behind something that's moving too slow she'll bark at that too.

Yesterday things were different. it was almost time for me to go back in the house for the day. I was sitting in front of the fan when Dolly appeared. She sat down and looked at me with a very sad expression on her face. In my opinion no dog does sad like a Dachshund. I knew what was wrong. If  I had said to her at that point " Dolly what's wrong?" "Show Me!" Show Me!" she would have lead me directly to the John Deere.

I did not take the John Deere out of the garage yesterday and she missed out on her mower ride. She may have wondered about her ride the entire time I was outside. She was doubly sad by the time she came to me. She also knows that if there is something wrong I'll figure it out and try to correct it.. In fact I think she has assigned me that job. We all have our specific jobs she has given us. Gretchen is for food and attention, Richard is the one to go to for fun things. Me, I am the correcter of wrongful things plus my shoulders are a great place for a little dog to nap.

I was too hot and tired to take her for a mower ride. I knew we needed a few groceries. I said to Dolly "Truck Ride" and Ka-Ching! her ears perked up and sad was gone in a flash. A truck ride is not as much fun as a mower ride but the truck has that wonderful glorious Air Conditioner that Mr.Carl knows how to set the vents just right to make a little dog feel mighty comfortable.

If Dolly were human she'd wear her emotions on her sleeve. Usually those emotions are happy ones. Sad is fairly rare and when it shows up I am compelled to find out why. I did not know that our mower rides meant so much to her. That's why I gave her two today lol.

I enjoy doing things for her. She in turn almost always lets me know she is grateful. I get many "Thank You" looks and lots of " I love You" looks too. She don't hide her feelings. The only thing she hides is when she is in pain.

My Good Little Dog Looks To Have A Long Term Medical Problem.

 I'll start by saying I'll really appreciate comments from long time Dachshund owners and folks who have had a Doxie who has had or has back problems.

 Yesterday, in spite of the fact that her back legs are not working well, chased a Pit Bull out of the yard because it offended her. True it was a friendly Pit Bull that I know, but there are times I wish she was not so brave. The only thing the Pit Bull did wrong was that it had forget to 'check in' with her first after entering the yard.  Dolly seems to feel that she needs to assess a visiting dogs mood before they visit her humans.

 Her bravery I feel has gotten her into trouble medically. She WAS absolutely fearless about leaping. One time she burst through a screen window and landed ten feet below. That was at her former owners home and she had seen us out in the garden. She also used to leap from our front porch onto the mid level of our terraced front yard. That's about 15 feet but not straight down.

 Our current problem showed up slowly and I finally noticed it about two weeks ago. Dolly was just not herself. She preferred to sleep and seemed to have low energy. I was thinking she might be in the early stages of diabetes. She neglected her appearance and did not seem to take as much joy as normal with our truck rides. The thing I noticed the most was that she had pretty much stopped giving my face a good licking. That used to be serious business for her. It was like she was grooming me like she's do a pup. She was very precise and thourough about doing this job. 

 I got her to the vet about a week ago. By then I was thinking that her monthly flea treatment had run out and she was having a problem with her flea allergies. I also figured that it had been a long time since her anal glands were expressed and maybe that was the problem too.

 As soon as we got inside the vets door Dolly started acting like her old very happy self.  Usually she is tense because she hates going to the vet.  She likes the people there but she has had to stay over night a couple of times and be separated from her people. She does not like to have us out of her sight. At the time I thought maybe she was faking feeling good so she could go home. A few years ago I would have laughed at anybody who made a statement like that but that was before I got to know Dolly.

 The vet X-rayed her and found a couple of places in her back that she said might cause Dolly some problems five years in the future. She also said her anal glands needed expressed and that was possibly causing her low energy. She gave us some anti-inflammatory meds to give Dolly once per day. The vet seemed to think that Dolly had leaped and landed wrong and probably hurt her back. Dolly was very happy and energetic when we left. That evening gretchen gave her the meds. About 30 to 45 minutes after the meds were given Dolly started giving Gretchen a lot of attention. Dolly wanted no attention for herself she wanted to give attention. it was her "Thank You" routine. It consists of long loving looks. You also get the paw wave. You get the feeling that shes saying " My humans are so smart" In the past she has resisted us giving her medications. After the first dose of the anti-inflammatory she stopped completely. She now knows the pills help I'm guessing.

 It was not until after the vet visit that her problems with walking showed up. I'd bet it was there before but she was hiding it to avoid a trip to the vet. I am more than likely wrong about that but would not be surprised to find out that I was right.

 She began having problems walking. She'd walk and then just plop down. She did not sit gracefully like she normally does, she'd just plop down. What concerned me was that she was doing this while on 'patrol'. Patrol is serious business to her. She never sat down in the past in the middle of a task.

 She also looked like she was planning her moves out ahead of time. it takes being disabled yourself to understand this. A normal person moves without thinking about it. When my disability was at it's worst I'd plot my movements out ahead of time. I did this to figure out the way that caused the least pain and used the least energy. If you wear yourself out you wil hurt more. It looked to me that Dolly was doing the same.

 I considered calling the vet and asking if we could increase her meds. The next day she acted better. I held off calling because I was afraid that she would become tolerant of her pain meds like I have my own pain meds.  I can explain to myself why my meds don't work all the time but you can't tell that to a dog.

 Dolly has slowly improved but still had that gait problem. I'll be taking her back to the vet close to the time the meds run out.

 What has really impressed me is Dolly's attitude. It's like "My legs don't work like I want them to." "No big deal, I'll figure out a way to get around this." It's almost like the times where we have made her do something she did not want to do. She just accepts it and goes on. There is no whining or begging. You get the impression she thinks " Well this is what my people want and that is what I shall do." However in this case it's "My back legs don't work, no use worrying about it, I'll just accept it and go on in the best way I know how."

 Before this happened I used to think I understood why people put their Doxies in wheelchairs instead of putting them to sleep. I thought they loved their dogs so much they could not put them down as long as they appeared to enjoy life.  I now have a much better understanding of how a dachshund enjoys life and is determined to make the best of it.  They have no intention of dieing or giving up.

 Somehow I can, in my minds eye, see Dolly chasing Pit Bulls out of the yard in a doggie wheelchair. Somehow she'd figure out a way to make it go faster. She'd also be trying to help me get it on her faster like she does her orange harness.

 One last thing.. Harley's owners moved out a day or so ago. I am going to miss that dog. I think Dolly will too.

 

OUT! OUT Darn spot OUT!

My son came in the living room a few nights ago and announced: "You are going to get mad at me."  I did not know whether to smile or get paranoid. I chose to smile and say "What is it son?"

It turned out that when he was bringing groceries in the house our neighbors dog Harley decided to come in with him.  Harley is a full grown Boxer. A huge dog that scared the heck out of me when I first saw him. I did not stay scared long because in the next instant after seeing him I saw Dolly standing there looking up at him admiringly.  Dolly does not take to just any dog that comes wandering in the yard. She's actually a pretty good judge of other dogs characters.


I had to laugh when I saw Harley standing there. That caused Dolly to come investigate. Her reaction was the opposite to mine. In the world according to Dolly, Harley is to be outside not inside.  She started raising cain but it was only halfhearted. It was like she was saying "Out!" "Out!" "You know the rules." "Out."" You belong outside. out!"

Harley always acts like a gentleman. He immediately headed for the back door. He even managed to do it without knocking anything over.  After he was gone Dolly was like " Well....he did not have to obey me that quickly." " I now wish that he could have stayed awhile."

Dolly likes Harley. Harley likes her and adapts to whichever mood she happens to be in. Most importantly he plays gently with her. Sometimes the big dogs get really rough with her when they play. Dolly hates that. There have been dogs in the past that insist on rough play. She will immediately find a spot where she puts their size at a disadvantage.  Her favorite spot is underneath the engine of our Ford Windstar which sets very close to the ground.  The biggest dogs don't even try to go under there. The smaller ones do but find that the playing field has been leveled. They can't use their size to knock her down and she is far more maneuverable under the van than they are.

Things I Said I'd Never Do

 There are many things I said I'd never do but wound up doing anyway. I think it was because I said the word never. Anytime I put the word 'Never' in a sentence it's almost a 100% certainty that I will do what I said I would never do.

 Near the top of my never list was owning a Dachshund. I did not like small dogs. Small dogs usually don't like me. Dachshunds have problems with their back. You have to pick them up just right. They bark far too much. Their bark is too loud. They are not a smart dog and they act like they don't like people very much. Yes those were the reasons I did not want to own a dachshund.

 I thought it was foolish for people to dress small dogs up. I'd see people bring them in stores and I'd think " You'll never see me bring a dog in a business.." I'd see people with them in their cars and I'd think "Not me, I don't like dogs in the cab of my truck and that's why I have a rule against it."

 Part of my dislike of dogs in a business relates to an incident that happened years ago. I was working a second job at a quick shop. The job was supposed to be part time but there were many times I put more hours in at that job than I did my regular one for several weeks at a time. Many a time at that job I'd be very tired especially at the end of the shift. One of my many jobs there was mopping the floor. Back in those days you worked your shift by yourself.

 One of our regular customers was an animal lover. I did not mind that but every time she came in the store she'd do something that either caused you more work or it would slow down the line of customers coming to pay. I did not like having customers lined up. I felt like I was not doing my job if I had a line. I wanted to get them taken care of as quickly as possible. People get angry when they see a line at a register but if they see you make that line move quickly their anger goes away.

 One night I had just finished mopping the floor. I delayed because we were busy and it had been raining. I waited till close to closing. I loved leaving a good clean floor and i was looking forward to going home and getting some desperately needed sleep. We had an employee quit. I had worked 3 weeks at that job without a day off and I needed rest.

 The animal lover showed up with 6 dogs that night and let all of them in the store. My floor was still wet. They came charging in and ran all over the store with their muddy feet. I held off saying anything to her because I was too mad. She bought her few little things and came to pay for them. Once she had payed I swallowed my anger and nicely asked her to not bring her dogs in the store again when it was raining.

 The bitch went off on me. She told me that her dogs did not leave mud in the store y customers did. She accused me of charging too high of prices on our stuff. I had no say in that. She accused me of charging too much for gasoline. I was accused of being inhumane to animals. She called me a theif and accused me of overcharging her. She said that when she got home she was going to call the police on me. She said she was never coming back to our store again. I took all this without saying a word and I was happy when she decided to stop yelling at me and leave.  I was quite angry when I remopped the store that night. To add insult to injury that women still came back to our store. I think she decided to leave when I broke my silence and told her that if she had a problem with me she should see my boss in the morning.

 That incident happened in the late 1970's  I'll likely not forget it. That woman gave me the impression that some people who own a bunch of small dogs are a little bit insane. Yeah I was a real a-hole with my attitude and I feel like a a-hole for having it.

 So today I was on Facebook when I saw this picture of a woman with a dachshund that looked like my Dolly. She had her dog in a wagon and was pulling it. The dog was dressed warmly and had a blanket. I thought "Oh that's so cute, that is so neat." " I have to do this with Dolly sometime." The pic left me with a warm feeling inside.  I started thinking about the times when she is riding in the cab of the truck with me, resting on my left leg, giving me "I love you" looks but at the same time looking out the front windshield, and then checking the drivers side mirror for motorcycles, then looking out the window itself for deer or anything that looks interesting.

 That picture made perfect sense to me.  I want to try it and I don't really care if a dog hater thinks I am a fool. What is even more amazing about my 100% turn around in attitude is the fact that when Dolly and I first met she hated me as only a Dachshund can. It took me a full month and a half to even touch her. She was my neighbors dog. My owning her only happened because I intended to only get her to stop barking at me.

 Sometimes I think that Dolly thinks she has to make it up to me for her earlier hatred of me. A few years ago I would have laughed at a statement like that. I love my little Dolly fiercely and I think she knows it. I believe she loves me more.

 Dachshunds are amazing little dogs once you get to know them. They remind me of miniature German Shepherds if there was such a breed. They love their owners more than any other dog and I tend to become very angry when I see hear of an owner abusing one. 

 By the way folks.. I completely get it now about small dogs and I wish that my conversion had happened years ago. I have missed out on a lot by not owning them.

An odd encounter.

I am a big believer in not letting your doxie go out to potty late at night unless they are on a leash. I will let her go out off leash when I go outside to work in the latter part of the day. I keep a close eye on her and she knows that I don't allow her out of my sight.

Sometimes though at night we have gotten tired of putting clothes on and going out in the cold. Dolly absolutely refuses to potty inside the house. In her mind no proper dachshund does such a lowlife thing and her outside territory must be marked to let trespassers know that our home is protected by a fierce and mighty dachshund.

Very early this morning it was still dark and none of us felt like going out with her. So we did something we almost never do now and that is let her go out on her own to potty. Since it was cold we figured she'd go out and do her business and come right back. Well... she came back alright but it was with the lesson that this will not happen again.

She'd been out maybe 10 minutes. She was not barking or showing any sign of distress. Gretchen went to check on her. When she did she found a very scared little dog who wanted her to pick her up and put her in her arms.  This is a big deviation in her behavior.  She does not like being carried into the house. Her routine is to bark to be let back in and when the door is open she comes strutting in occasionally giving you the "Thank You!" look. Then we are supposed to strut to my recliner and jump up on me or we go directly to the bedroom and tunnel under the blanket. This morning Gretchen sat her down and she went blasting by me then leapt on the bed immediately burying under the covers as if to hide.

She acted scared the rest of the morning. I don't know what she saw. I have seen her scare big dogs away with a look. There was one time she would not get in the truck with me and decided to go down to Missy's to Potty and to see if the Thomas family had processed more deer meat.  On the way back two pit bulls spotted her and ran at her. instead of running she stood and stared at them. They backed off walked off a way but then came running back at her. That time all she did was sit down and glare at them. If your hind end is on the ground you don't have to worry about the second dog sneaking in behind you and biting your butt. By that time I was down there with the truck. I yelled at the pit bulls, they ran off  and Dolly came strutting to the truck like "Thank you but I had them covered."

I figure that she came across either a coyote or maybe even a mountain lion. There has been a few of them killed close by on the roads in the last several years. Usually when we are out with her at night we have a big walking stick or hiking staff. Animals, dogs especially, seem to be afraid of humans carrying sticks. Dolly seems to know that we have the stick for defensive purposes.

We love our little dog. We will no longer be lazy with her at nighttime. We owe it to her to protect her because for one she'd do the same for us.

I am a Spoiled Owner

Yes I confess that I have become a spoiled owner. I have willingly and cheerfully allowed it to happen. I have become spoiled by a very intelligent and sweet dog who goes about her life in such a way that I have to laugh at her.

It's mainly her intelligence that has me spoiled. The latest thing that happened along these lines is that I had come in from outside and Dolly had delayed coming in. I usually come in before the evening traffic picks up otherwise I have to put her on the leash. Instead of going directly to my recliner I started doing something at the kitchen sink.

I'd no sooner came in than Dolly barked to be let in the front door. She charged to the living room where she was perplexed because I was not in my spot. Her perplexed or questioning look is easy to see. Her ears will be on alert, she might sniff the air, and she always looks at one of her humans with a look that says "I don't understand, or what's going on here?"  In this case she was looking at Gretchen with a look that said "Where is he??"

We all have gotten to where we talk to Dolly like she is a human member of our family and we do it without even thinking about it. When Dolly was looking for me Gretchen said to her " He is in the kitchen."  We have never taught her the names of the rooms of our home. Also Gretchen, when she talks to Dolly always refers to me as "Carl" and rarely as " He". In spite of this Dolly went charging to the kitchen to find me.


If you were to watch Dolly for a short time and did not know her you'd probably think that I am dead wrong about the things I see in her. That's because in this stage of her life she sleeps a lot and she has adapted herself to our less active lifestyle.If I had my way I'd be 20 years younger and we'd both go on long walks on country roads. I'm hoping that if I lose more weight I will be able to do this again. My little dog has adapted herself so much to us she now acts like an older dog. Fortunately there are times she will just cut loose and run for no reason.  When I see her do it I encourage her. I'll stand there and clap my hands while saying "Go Dolly, run!"

Yes I have been spoiled.

The Bone Delimma

So what do you do when you are a Dachshund and you have stolen a nice juicy bone from another dog? This is not just any bone either, it's a bone from a Whitetail deer, it is a leg bone and it's fresh because of the cold weather. Mr. Carl has inspected your bone and says it's safe for you.You love deer meat above all other food. You know where deer comes from and when you are in Mr.Carl's pickup truck you are always on high alert when he drives by places where you have seen deer. Mr. Carl does not hunt but he has friends who give him deer meat.

The first thing you do is sneak the bone home. It's big and you hope that the big dogs don't see it and take it away from you. When you get it home you lay down and proceed to chew the meat off it. You are peacefully enjoying your bone when all at once Mr.Carl calls for you.  He is calling for you to go on a truck ride with him.

You'd rather enjoy your bone first. It's not everyday that you find a nice bone that is almost as big as you are. You know that if you leave it behind another dog will steal it.Mr. C keeps calling. You want to obey him but you want that bone too. You already know that it's too big to take along with you. You also sense that Mr.C has not always allowed dogs to ride in his truck with him and you don't want to do anything to mess that up. So you start tearing at that bone even faster in hopes that you will finish it and then go on your ride. Why must humans always have to be in a hurry all the time??

Mr. Carl sees you with your bone and he does wait but only a short time. He comes over to pick you up. He's acting as if he is not going to pick you up but you already know that this is his favorite trick for picking up a critter that don't want to be picked up. You briefly debate playing the game of " Catch the agile Dachshund" but you decide not to. You know that Mr. C is going to somehow figure out a way for you to have your bone.

When Mr. Carl picks you up you are sad because you let the bone go. Your sadness goes away when you see him pick up the bone too. He then says " Look here Dolly, Your bone will be safe right here." You are now happy because he has put the bone in the pickup bed and he says " No dog will steal it here!"  You let Mr.C. know that you would be happy to ride back there and eat your bone but he will have none of that. 

You go for a nice long ride to Fulton. When you are not looking out the window you occasionally give Mr.C. those long " I love you so very,very, much." looks.  Every once in a while he will say to you "Youse a goood dawg Dollee" You love that baby talk routine that he does."

You finally get home and you are pleased to see that he has not forgotten your bone even though you did for a few seconds.  He hands it to you and you go wave it around in the air Because you are proud of your bone and that Mr.C took care of it.  Unfortunately you have another problem now. It's getting dark and none of your humans allow you to stay outside by yourself. You know that you are pushing your luck too far if you try to take it in the house. You must find a place to hide that bone where it won't be found and you have to do it in a hurry.

Mrs. Gretchen is calling you to come inside.  You ignore her and she goes in to get Mr. Carl. Now is the perfect time. No human is watching so it's time to pull off an intelligent stunt. You run over to Mr. Ray's and Mrs. Teresa's yard.  One of your dog buddies Napoleon lives there. Napoleon lives in a fenced in yard. Napoleon, even though he likes you, does not like too many other dogs. He gets mighty angry when he sees another dog walk close to his territory.

You take your nice bone and you bury it quickly a few inches outside of Napoleon's fence. Right next to where he stands guard most of the time. You know that that he will raise hell with any dog that comes that close. You also know that his barking will distract a dog from smelling your bone. Most importantly you know that he cannot get to your bone.

Mrs. Gretchen comes out again to get you but your bone is buried so you come strutting back home. You are proud that you figured out where to put your nice bone where it is safe and you are now looking forward to an evening of sleeping on Mr.Carl's shoulder.  The only ting you do differently is when you jump up on him. Instead of running up his chest you stop in his lap and you look at him proudly. You hear him laugh and say " Look at her muzzle!" " She still has dirt on it from burying her deer leg" You are even more happy now because you have made your family happy. You walk up his chest and settle in for that long nap.

Names

Have you ever named a new dog after some of the first words that run through your mind when you first meet them?  I did that a few days ago and I regret it now.

Rich had taken Dolly outside and I went out shortly afterward. I'd no sooner got out the door when I looked up just in time to see this massive pit bull / boxer mix dog standing 50 feet away staring at me. The dog was so big he looked like a small deer.  The first thought was "Good God I hope that thing is friendly!" I was about ready to go back in the house a lot faster than I'd came out  when I thought "Where's Rich and where's Dolly?

I got my answer on my second look at that dog. Dolly was standing underneath that dog with her tail at half mast,  her little grin on her face, looking up at that dog with her "I love you" look.  I calmed down quite a bit because Dolly is an excellent judge of other dogs character.  Dogs that she does not like get a very cold, penetrating glare that sometimes send much larger dogs running away in fear.  It really pisses her off when a big dog runs away from her. She'll go into a barking frenzy and try to chase them. If she sees them even a month later she will start barking at them. In the world according to Dolly any dog that runs away from her HAS to be up to no good.

I immediately named the new dog "Thing". partly because of the first thing I thought when I saw him and partly because I am not sure of what breed he is. 

"Thing" fell in love with me within 10 seconds of seeing me and from 50 feet away. When he ran up to me his bob-tail was going so fast I thought it was going to fly off. He greeted me like I was a long lost master who had just returned from several years absence. He is such a huge dog I was afraid he was going to knock me down. I had to tell him NO and he immediately obeyed. I was soon to see that he was neutered. He's the second dog I have seen with that odd neutering method of completely removing the scrotum. 

"Thing" is too much dog for me at my age. When I was younger and if he were a stray I'd happily take him in. he's not a stray. I'm positive he belongs to someone here in Mokane. I need to find out his real name. I feel a bit bad about naming him "Thing" because he's a good dog. Whenever I tell him NO he acts as if his heart is broken. He also cheerfully answers to that name.

As soon as "Thing" realizes I'm outside he comes to visit. He wants to be as close as possible to me and enjoys sitting on my foot. There is only one problem with this dog. "Thing" in spite of his great size appears to think he is a Dachshund. A miniature Dachshund at that.  He wants to be a lap dog and be in my lap full time.  The only problem with him is that when Dolly wants a little attention from me "Thing" gets jealous. We are going to have to work on that.  Dolly loves her attention but only in small bits. I think "Thing" if allowed would be in my lap 100%of the time.

I prefer Dolly's method of receiving attention in short intense sessions. Once she's had her fill she's off to do her job of protecting the place and won't be back for quite awhile. My only concern about "Thing" is that he is so big he may knock me down.

Sharing

I deliberately delayed making another Blog entry. That was because I wanted the last one to stay up a long time where people would hopefully see it.  Her actions that night were just too cute and intelligent. I'll be doing something a bit different with this post because I'm going to talk about my cats personalities too.

I dislike the month of January. February too for that matter. Any month where the temperature stays in the teens or on the Celsius thermometer anything below -20 for several days at a time. it's too cold for me to go out and work especially if the sun stays behind clouds. I have two heaters in my garage but the way they work is that part of me sweats while the other freezes.

Weather like this puts me in the house all day where I sometimes sit and think. I'll either read of fiddle on the laptop. The weird thing is that there are things I really need to do inside but the gloomy weather outside put me in such a mood that I don't even feel like doing those things. When I do it seems to take a massive amount of energy.

I live in a house that is probably 125 years old. The original map of my town that was drawn after they moved it out of the Missouri River Bottoms shows my house and that map was done in 1900. The town was moved to make way for the KATY railroad. Nowadays instead of the railroad we have the 220 mile long KATY hiking and biking trail.My house always has been cold this time of year in spite of extensive remodling.  We have a fireplace insert that today is the source of my story.

When I get up on these cold mornings the fire in the insert is sometimes out.  It was this morning and I was immediately besieged by my cats.  I am blessed and sometimes cursed by the fact that I have some fairly intelligent cats. Dolly is also an intelligent dog. You'd think that having intelligent critters would lead to a problem free life but any one who has owned an intelligent animal will tell you that sometimes their intelligence gets them in trouble. Fortunately nobody got in trouble today.

Our cats know that the insert is that object that you do not jump on when it's fan is going and it puts out wonderful warmth. They also know that the humans have to make it work. They also know that if they put up a fuss one of the humans will eventually figure out what is wrong and fix it. Our cats clear message this morning was " The fire is out, do something about it." I began the process of starting the fire and the message went to " Oh goody, goody,goody he figured out what we want!"

My cats may be intelligent but they are not patient. The message switched to "Hurry up with the fire!" My little black cat who is the youngest seems to think she is helping by jumping around all over the place and yowling. Calley our Calico seems to think that expressing love is the best way to help.  She is the one who will look in the firebox itself to see how things are going. If there is no fire yet she gets anxious and might yowl. If flames are showing she is happy and will start rubbing up against my legs, sometimes purring too.  Misty my oldest cat seems to have it figured out pretty good. Once it's obvious that the human is meeting your needs you just sit back out of the way and observe the process. You only assist if it looks like the human was either distracted or forgot what they were supposed to do. You assist by yowling and you stop when they are back on task.

I got the fire going but the cats were not done with me yet. I am now required to sit down in my recliner and pull a blanket up over myself to keep warm.  My little black kitty gets too anxious and winds up interfering with the process. This earns angry looks from both Calley and Misty but lil' black kitty don't care because in spite of being the youngest she is the head chief boss cat of the house. 

I finally get the cover on. Calley is the cat who is on the lowest rung of the pecking order. Calley was the runt of her litter. She is also physically handicapped by a birth defect. In spite of this Calley has her jumps into my lap timed perfectly. As soon as the blanket settles she leaps into the prime spot. She loves that spot so well that she even sometimes tolerates me using her as a laptop stand. She loves the warmth it puts out. The other cats would love to swat her out of that spot but they know that I do not tolerate them fighting so they settle for other places. They also feel secure that they don't have to fight for position.

The cats also leave the top of the recliner for Dolly. They occasionally challenge her for it. Any hint of violence means they get run off of their warm spot. Dolly will sometimes allow Misty to share her spot with her. As long as they don't have to look at one another. Those two seem to have a mutual respect for each other.  Dolly knows that Misty is an expert with the claws. She knows that being swatted with no claws means " Leave me alone" Misty knows that a claws out swat will anger the humans too much.

None of my critters tolerate cuddling with each other to keep warm. Their memories are too long and they do not forgive one another. On the other hand they will forgive a human fairly quickly. The last two cats that I owned that would cuddle were neutered male cats. One was completely insane but my current cats treated him like a lovable crazy uncle. 

My critters relationships with each other are complex. What works one day may not work the next. If Dolly had her way there would be no cats in the house. Probably because every cat she's ever met always does the "You are not a REAL dog" routine with her. That and when we first started keeping her my cats went on a mission to drive her out of the house completely and they don't give up easily. Dolly has not forgotten that and to her it is the unpardonable sin. She does not tolerate anything that separates her from her humans.

Dolly does not share with the cats anything she deems as 'hers'. She will share with her humans but if we try to take a bone away from her that she should not have she will do what I call non-violent resistance. I reinforce the non violent resistance by taking things away from her that I know she can have. I will immediately take it and look at it then I will say "This is OK Dolly" and hand it back to her. She knows the word OK. If she has something that is bad for her I will say" This is BAD it make Dolly HURT."  She learned the word hurt from the time her pelvis was fractured.

I love all my critters. I love Dolly the most. If any of my accidental readers are still reading here I'd like to express my most sincere and heartfelt thanks. I appreciate you very much. I like to write but sometimes what I write is not good quality. If you have read this and I made you at least smile I accomplished my goal. I love to make people laugh and I like people who make me laugh. Most of all when I write I want to write something that will make people sit back and think.