October 2014
Emmylou
I am just as pleased as I can be. I have a Dachshund puppy. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wanted to wait until spring, but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.
I searched Craigslist, the entire eastern seaboard and much of the Midwest , for a puppy to no avail. It wasn’t until my early morning, not enough coffee, attempt in which I misspelled Dachshund and found a female puppy about 40 miles down the road in Kentucky at a price I was willing to pay.
She’s a beauty. I had thought I wanted a red, smooth hair Dachshund. What I have is a coal black, smooth hair Dachshund. She’s black velvet and midnight giggles. She’s just perfect.
I am so happy.
And so is Phoebe. So far Emmylou (she’s a blue, Kentucky girl) has played with Phoebe’s toys, eaten Phoebe’s food, monopolized Phoebe’s mom and pretty much made herself at home. Phoebe is all smiles. I suspected she needed a playmate and I was right.
Dachshunds are special creatures. Nothing snuggles like a Dachshund. And they make these cute little sounds and they’re just so damn cute. I very much have a case of puppy love.
The Conundrum
Off and on, like many things in my life, I journal. I got started in earnest when the book The Artist’s Way was popular. For a while, I was pretty good about my morning pages – 3 notebook pages of morning brain dump.
I’ll journal somewhat regularly for a bit and then abandon it for even longer, mostly because I find myself journaling over and over the same things – the things I need to do that I continue not to do and the self-improvement activities I should do, but don’t.
The blog is like this too, to some extent. I love blogging, but as my life becomes more and more mundane with more and more left undone, I find myself with nothing to write about. This becomes a problem, like the journaling, in that I need to write.
The act of writing clears my mind and focuses my thoughts. I often say I don’t know what I think about something until I write about it. So here I am writing about why I’m not writing. And I’m stumped.
If anyone has an ideas to help me through this impasse, I would like to hear them.
A New Puppy?
Trudy and Me
I’m thinking of getting a dachshund puppy. I’m awfully glad there are none for sale in the area right now, because my puppy fever is alarmingly high. I need to think this through and I need to wait until spring because training will then be easier.
I spent the weekend dog-sitting, Dolleigh, for my parents. Phoebe had such a good time even though Dolleigh just tolerated her. Having Dolleigh love on me as only a dachshund can was a delight.
When I was making the decision to get Phoebe, I vacillated between a dachshund and a Shih Tzu, finally deciding on Shih Tzu because they’re lower maintenance dogs and I felt I needed that for my life at the time.
Willy and Me
As it turns out, I’m not sure Phoebe is as advertised. She was supposed to be a half Shih-Tzu, half Maltese mix which means she should be much smaller than she is. She only vaguely resembles a Shih-Tzu. She exhibits herding behaviors, runs in circles, and is not the couch potato her supposed breed should indicate. As a point of fact, she’s pretty high maintenance. I believe her mama had a dalliance with an Australian Shepherd.
I wouldn’t trade her for the world, but after dog sitting and seeing how much she enjoyed having a companion, I’m wondering if a second dog wouldn’t be good for her, too. Lord knows, there is nothing more fun than a dachshund puppy. I would be in a constant state of delight.
I’ve had two dachshunds in my life. The most recent, Trudy, now lives with my son who is ridiculously in love with her. I didn’t feel like I could stand between a boy and his dog once Chef Boy ‘R Mine had the ability to have a dog in his life. So off Trudy and Willy, the Italian greyhound, went to live with him. The two of them are unable to be separated. They’re a bonded pair.
The other dachshund, Stevie, was the best dog who ever lived. She died in a tragic accident that was my fault and I still mourn her.
Stevie
I’ve always said two dogs are easier than one. I do adore Phoebe, but she is usually much too busy to spend much time giving me lovings whereas dachshunds live to bestow affection upon their humans. I crave a little furbody next to me.
There are downsides, of course, the expense and the irritations of puppyhood – chewing, house training, socializing. However, I think the decision is made to get a dachshund puppy. Let’s hope I can wait until the timing is optimal.
W. Va. Fur and Root 