Written in 1996
It was a cold night in Bavaria, when a little Dachshund Mommy named Elfi lay in her whelping box giving birth to four beautiful and healthy puppies. This was her first litter of pups with the young boy dog named Sam. She had two little girls and two slightly larger boys. As Frau Lanzingher bent over the box and patted Elfi she told her, in German of course, what a good little mother she was.
As the days passed the puppies began to open their eyes and play about. They were tiny and had black and brown wiry fur. One of the girls was particularly loving with all who came to see them. Frau Lanzingher would always hold her up and give her a little kiss.
One day when the puppies were a little older, Frau Lanzingher brought the basket of puppies into her kitchen. It was warm and the puppies could smell good food being cooked on the stove. A man came and took one of the girl puppies away. He said she would be going to Italy to live.
A while later three ladies and a man and a boy came into Frau Lanzingher’s kitchen. The little girl dog spotted a tall woman with a kind face. This lady bent down and said words that this pup had never heard before. But she liked the face of the lady, so she began to wag her tail and jumped around trying to get the lady to pick her up like Frau Lanzingher did. The lady didn’t need much prompting. She bent over a little more and carefully picked up the little girl.
“Hello there, little pup!” said the lady. Of course the little pup was a German dog so she didn’t understand what the lady said.
Then the lady kissed the top of her head. That, the puppy understood. The little girl began to plant kiss after kiss on the lady. The lady giggled and snuggled the puppy some more.
“She is wonderful, Jack!” said the lady.
The little girl pup liked this lady. She gave lots of kisses andshe snuggled pretty good, too. She didn’t understand a word she said, but her voice sounded nice, so the little pup decided she liked the lady enough and curled up in her arms and started to fall asleep.
The man told Frau Lanzingher, in German, that they wanted to buy the little girl and one of the other ladies was buying the friendly boy puppy. Then the man told Frau Lanzingher that the little girl dog would be going all the way to America! The little girl puppy listened and wondered where America was. She figured it would be okay because the nice lady would hold her.
So the man paid Frau Lanzingher and the nice lady, still holding the little girl pup, thanked her and then they went outside into the cold and snowy day. The lady placed the little girl pup on the snow and the little girl pup wee-weed. The other lady placed the boy puppy down but he didn’t need to go.
They all climbed into the car and the nice lady held onto the little girl pup and carefully tucked her under her coat.
“That should keep you warm” said the lady.
And she patted the little pup who was shaking with the cold and with nerves.
“Well, we know what your name will be, little one.” said the lady. “You will be Shubi. And I will be your mommy.”
The little pup didn’t know what the lady said, but she liked the sound of Shubi. The lady kept saying that over and over again. “Shubi” The little Shubi girl settled herself against the warm lady and snuggled further under her coat. Then she fell asleep.
Nice!