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.

 

I missed a day or so but that does not mean nothing happened.

Take last night for example. I was late going to bed plus I had trouble going to sleep.  sortly after going to sleep I start dreaming. It starts out with me driving across a rather complicated bridge over a major river. Then the dream morphs into Dolly being in pain,yelping loudly and I can't do anything about it.  I wake up immediately, look at my watch and see that it's only been about an hour and a half since I went to bed.  I get to thinking about Dolly and I can't go back to sleep. I want to get up and just hold and hug her for a long time. It was very late so I tried to go back to sleep but could not for a long time.

Of course the fact that I was dreaming about her my have been due to the fact she poo'd in my lap about two hours before I went to bed. Her signals for potty are the same as the ones for when she just wants out of the crate for a little while. The poo event was even funny believe it or not. I saw her raise that tail and I yelled for Gretchen to bring me something to catch the mess with. It was far too late to make a break for outside. As soon as I yelled for Gretchen, Dolly tried to hold back the poo. As soon as Gretchen put an old newspaper on my leg Dolly let loose.

It was at that point I made another error by saying to Gretchen that she was done. Gretchen takes the paper and goes off in the kitchen. Dolly has this worried expression on her face. Then the tail comes up again. It looked to me like she just could not help it.  Again Dolly tried to wait until Gretchen got there before she let loose again. Note that I said tried.  Once she was finished she acted as if she was totally embarrassed. She would not look at me and settled into my arm as if totally exhausted. It was not until I put her in the crate that I found that not all of the mess made it onto the paper. Oh well, that's what washing machines are for.

She did pee in the crate yesterday. We were late waking up. We had her outside 4 times that day and twice today with no results. I am thinking that she still wants to do her long potty ritual before doing anything out there. She will have to adapt to the new routine. I should be very angry but I am not. After all it's we humans fault that this situation is as it is to begin with. Had we done our jobs we would not have to do this.

I left the house today for the first time in several days. I went into town to but food for us and Dolly because we have snow coming in the next day or two.  I bought Dolly some dog insulated dog boots. They were expensive but I justified the expense in my mind by reminding myself that we have already spent quite a bit of money on vet services for her and I can't have her getting sick on me from not being used to the cold. She hates cold anyway. In the past when she put her feet in snow she would cry out in pain. That however was a very cold day and it was the first time she ever saw snow. She's been out in it since then for short periods of time but she will only stay out if there are other dogs out there.

I was in town longer than I intended. When I got back Dolly was happy to see me and started doing her happy grunt along with biting at the cage door. She was even happier when we took her out and took the cone thing off. I got my ears licked for the first time in a long time. I suppose I have gone back to being her puppy who needs groomed. Since she came home she was not giving me much attention but seemed to be saving it for Gretchen. That was OK by me as long as it helps her get better. Gretchen gives her food,water, and meds.

When I was going through the checkout the lady there appeared to be about 50 years old. I was telling her about Dolly and buying her the boots. The lady says " It sounds to me like you have a spoiled dog." I thought "What the hell." so I explained about her surgery and why I needed the boots.  She says "Yeah, I did not know they had all this stuff for animals until I came to work here." I was thinking "What kind of backwater area did she grow up in?"  I must note that the lady was friendly the whole time. I figure that she must be one of those folks who do not exactly know how to make conversation with people. I also know that when I was younger I made my own share of gaffs so I just wrote it off and let it go. Still though you'd think she'd have learned by now and i honestly hope she does not make too many more errors like that while working in a pet store. She looked like she really needed the job.

We just made another potty run without results during the process of writing this. After we got back inside she sat in my lap but then gave me the signal that she wanted back in "Her" crate. We gave her some meds and she asleep now. We will try tomorrow to cut back on the pain meds. I don't think she needs them as much as she did and I think she is becoming tolerant of them.

She's still my little Schatzi.  I'm crazy in love with that dog. I missed having her with me in the van.