Dackel Princess

For The Love Of My Dackels

Back in 1996 when I brought home my first wirehaired dackel, I didn’t realize how much these little creatures would change me and the world I lived in.

Baby Shubi.

Shubi was my first wirehaired dackel and honest to God, she changed my life. She was my little Army. When I listened to Jamie Reagan and Eddie Janko say their wedding vows on Blue Bloods, it made me think about Shubi and how she saved me from depression.

“I will always have your back. If you fall behind I will wait up.
I will earn your respect and pay you respect every day we have.
I’ll be your scout, your night watchman, your cavalry.
Your medic, your chaplain in our army of two.
No retreat, no surrender. You can count on me.”

Shubi came into my life at just the right time. I was quite lost after the death of my six-year-old daughter. I was going down and there was very little I cared about.

But when darling Shubi came she was just 3 months old. She needed to be fed several times a day, walked, and we even went to doggy school so she could train me.

Walking with Shubi and a friend in Bavaria.

After so much sadness, Shubi gave me a reason to get up each day, and soon I was not only working my way out of the depression, but I was starting to enjoy life once again.

Shubi was an only dackel-child for 8 years before Greta joined us. We flew to Germany and went to the breeder’s home and picked up our girl. I was sure that no dackel could be as wonderful as Shubi, but I was so wrong. Where Shubi was a Beaty Queen, Greta was fierce and unafraid. I still recall the Easter afternoon when Greta cornered a garter snake (not poisonous) and barked loudly to protect me from it. Remembering that moment still makes me laugh!

Sadly Shubi left us shortly after her tenth birthday. She had contracted a very rare illness GME (granulomatous meningo-encephalomyelitis). That was a very difficult goodbye. Shubi was so special.

My darling, Greta.

I did not have time to grieve as Greta went to her first German Dog Show, was rated Excellent and a boyfriend was found for her who was from German stock. Ten months later, Greta gave birth to her first litter and my love grew with the addition of Arnie and Anneliese.

Baby Anneliese and Baby Arnie.

We were so lucky to have had Greta for 14 and a half years, Anneliese for 14 years and one month, and Arnie for 14 and three-quarter years.

Anneliese and Arnie.

Right now I am alone. Well, I have Lili I know, but as sweet as she is, she isn’t a cuddler and she is very much a protector of the home and hearth. This is funny because there is not a mean bone in Lili’s body, yet when we did have that daytime break-in back in January of 2019, fierce Lili was the heroine of the day.

Lili.

But I was puttering around the house today and I had to go down to the basement and I said “I’ll be right back Arnie” and then I realized he wasn’t here and I stopped and a sob caught in my throat.

I hope to find a new dackel-baby soon. I am just one of those people who has found the breed of dog that is perfect for them, and the wirehaired dackel is it for me!

The Friday Five ~ October 22nd

It’s Friday once again. This week started out quietly, but then I got on a roll and got an awful lot done. I still have a few things to do, but I’m making progress. So, without further ado, here is this week’s Friday Five!

Are you having shortages of grocery items where you are? I am finding things like non-perishable items are disappearing from the shelves. I stocked up on canned soups and vegetables, and we have already filled the freezer with meats and poultry so we are good. I even have a turkey!
Then there was the laundry. I thought that Thursday was supposed to be a nice dry day, so I washed three loads of laundry and hung out almost two loads. Then it started to rain! Fortunately, I have clotheslines on my screen porch, which also has a roof. So, I was saved.
This week I was adjusting to being back on the WW diet. I changed a lot of things this time. I’ve given up coffee creamer and I am watching my portion size. It’s working. I lost 5 pounds in one week! Call me happy!
Our leaves are nearly all either turning a dead brown or have fallen from the trees. Yes, although we have warmer temperatures, we did not really have a super color-filled Autumn.
The weekend will be spent clearing out some room to store Christmas gifts. I had a rather large Amazon box next to my bed and when I was coming back to bed in the night I tripped on it and I swear my Guardian Angel caught me. So, time to organize!

What are you doing this weekend? Have you started Christmas shopping? I hope wherever you are, your weekend will be a good one!

TBT: Anneliese & Isegrim

I was getting out the three collars of Greta, Anneliese, and Arnie, to wash before I place them forever in a memories box filled with pictures, dried flowers, and of course their collars. As I opened my dackel bag I saw a newspaper. And there I was, holding Anneliese’s husband, Isegrim. He was the German father of Anneliese’s puppies.

I’d forgotten this article. But there it was. Reminding me of a great time in my life. A time I was doing something I truly believed in and also enjoyed more than words could ever say.

Oh, how wonderful those 12 weeks were. Imagine having your own little pack of 4 puppies to play with, teach things to, and snuggle. Simply the most wonderful time ever!

I need to get my scanner up and going and carefully scan this in. After all, the paper will eventually wear away. So, I need to scan and protect.

What a perfect day to find this. I really needed something to make me smile!

The collars are in the wash, and I am working to preserve the memories of my Dackel Princess pups!

In the back, Greta and Arnie. In the front, Anneliese.

Quiet

The last couple of days I have been quiet. I needed the quiet. I think there are times you find that keeping busy helps to take your mind off of the things that are bothering you. Then the thoughts come up and hit you and you begin to feel it all again.

Life is very quiet since Arnie has passed. In the last months of his life, he was quite vocal, and now there is silence.

Lili will follow me around some, but she is the guard dog of our house and most often is on the floor next to the door. Occasionally she will come in and sleep on the sofa, but mostly she is on duty.

Anyway, I decided to do a few things to get ready for Christmas, and fortunately, I can shop online. I’ve actually made quite a dent in the shopping!

While having my quiet time I have also wiped my hard drive and reloaded things. Things are in better order than they were.

The weather has also been rather fierce reminding me that we have now entered Autumn. The wind has been blowing so hard that it makes loud noises outside. The lovely leaves are blowing down and very soon our trees will resemble skeletons.

Autumn may be late this year, but it is finally here and I actually broke out the warm nightgown last night.

Stay warm and snuggly in your home and enjoy the last days of Autumn as they blow by.

All In A Day’s Work!

I thought I would sit down and write about my new wet/dry cleaner for my hard floors (wood or tile). I had done the tiled bathrooms, but I was looking forward to doing the kitchen floor. As I said yesterday, my kitchen is huge and is a high-traffic area.

I was all set to do this in the morning, but since it was Saturday and I had to get our mail by noon, along with a recycling center run and pick up a few groceries, I had to put off my floor washing until after lunch.

It worked like a gem! It was easy on my back/neck and it made my floor sparkle! I’ve been washing floors for years and they have never looked this good. Never!

It did take a while. I admit that by the time I was done about 3:30 (this included loading the machine, using it, and then cleaning the machine after) I was really a wee bit tired. But heck, I’m an old lady!

However, every time I go out to the kitchen for anything, I smile at how wonderful my floor looks!

I would definitely give my cleaner 5 stars!

I made an easy dinner for Jack, a nice easy diet dinner for me, and then hit the shower afterward.

Oddly enough, I did not sleep well. Perhaps it was the rain or all the work I’d done. But after tossing and turning all night I gave up and got out of bed at 4:45! Ugh!

Here’s an interesting note about our weather. It is October 17th and we still have not had the first frost. This is unusual. Our first frost usually happens by the end of September. Right now we don’t see a hard frost on our horizon.

I hope this has been a good weekend for you all.

Friday Was a Good Day!

On Friday I made good use of my time. I had a three o’clock Glaucoma Eye Doctor appointment, so I left late morning and stopped at various places along the way.

I shopped for canned goods, and various storable food items went to our local Outlet Mall (an outdoor mall) and bought two Christmas presents. I masked up and didn’t get close to anyone, and I also washed my hands and used sanitizer.

I stayed on my healthy eating plan, getting a small container of cottage cheese and some fruit for my lunch. I also stopped at BJ’s for gas and tanked up for $2.97 a gallon. (I felt good about that!)

Traffic was heavy on my way to Manchester. People were simply driving crazy. It was a relief to get to her office in one piece!

My exam showed eye pressures of 14 in my right eye and 15 in my left. Better than they were a year ago, but still not where we want them to be. I will go back in two months and if they are the same or higher I may need further laser surgery.

It is a relief to have a doctor I feel totally confident with. She is amazingly good and I feel well taken care of.

After my appointment, I got back on the highway for my trip home. The traffic was really bad then and when I got to the Capitol of New Hampshire, Concord, it was literally “stop and go”.

I made it home in time to feed Lili and Jack and prepare a nice meal of zucchini and summer squash sauteed with a turkey burger. Actually, not too bad.

So that was my Friday. Today I plan to get out my new floor cleaner and do the kitchen floor. I imagine that will take me a while as I have a huge kitchen. For anyone looking for a wet/dry cleaner for your hard floors, this machine is really good and it is on sale at BJ’s until November 3rd.

Have a great weekend!

The Friday Five ~ October 15th

The week sped by. I’m in a phase of my life where the days, weeks, and months are tending to slip by very fast. This week was a pretty good one. So here we go with the week’s Friday Five.

I love my new floor cleaner. I decided to experiment with my bathroom tile floor and the half bathroom floor. Well, I have to tell you, it was easy on my back and neck and did a fabulous job. Over the weekend I hope to do the kitchen floor!
I recently lost my favorite comb. I thought it was in my purse, but no luck! I searched my tote bag, car, kitchen, everywhere it may have gone. No, go. So, I ordered one from Amazon. It wasn’t exactly like my favorite comb, but close. Still, while awaiting the arrival of my new comb, I grieved the loss of my favorite. The new comb arrived and it’s okay. I was putting it away in the bathroom vanity when I recalled that I had not unpacked my traveling toiletry bag. So, I grabbed that and what should I find? Yes, my favorite comb! So, the new one will go in my travel bag and my beloved comb will never leave this house. Funny how we get attached to these things.
Today I go to my Glaucoma Doctor for a check. I have had surgery on both eyes now, and the pressures did come down. Let’s just hope that with the drops it is staying down.
I am back to being on my WW Healthy eating plan. I’m feeling good and I am psyched about it once again. I want to live my best life, healthfully!
Lastly this week, I am looking to find a new Dackel Baby. I cannot tell you how I have grieved for my boy. My arms simply ache with no little boy to hold and hug. I do not care if I get a boy or a girl. I am of the belief that my next Dackel will come to me like all the others. The new pup in my life will find me, just as Shubi, and Greta did. And then Greta blessed me with Arnie and Anneliese. Yes, I truly believe my puppy will find me.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope wherever you are that you enjoy a warm and wonderful weekend.

It’s Here!

In recent years, I’ve been having trouble vacuuming and washing floors. When I actually break down and do this, my neck gets really sore and I just hang it up for the day.

So, I was watching an infomercial over the holiday weekend when I saw a Bissell machine just for wood floors and tiles. Best of all, if a small dust-bunny of Lili’s hair gets caught up in the machine, this thing is ready and can handle anything.

So, I went to Amazon to check their prices on this machine and it was close to $250.00, and that was just for the machine!

So, I went to Bissell and their machine came with one extra roller bar and one mini container of cleaning fluid.

I really didn’t want to pay $250.00, but I figured that Bissell had the better price. So, I began the process of ordering it online straight from the manufacturer.

My problem was, the site kept kicking me out. It would not allow me to complete the process.

I hemmed and hawed for a few hours and I was “thisclose” to just ordering the machine from Amazon when I got an email from BJ’s Warehouse. Their come on was “Come to BJ’s and check out our prices!

So I toddled on my Browser to check out their sales, and what should I find? If you guessed my machine, you would be right! And best of all, it came with 3 mini bottles of cleaner, 3 large bottles of cleaner, 4 beater bars and of course, my machine. It was also on sale for $189.00! Well, that’s just too good to be true!

So I signed into my account and set about ordering the machine. When I reached the check out it asked me if I wanted to use the $10.00 coupon I had earned by using my BJ’s credit card at the Warehouse and their gas stations.

Why, yes, yes I did!

So the grand total was $179.00!

With free shipping!

I was so excited when I hit the order button on Sunday night! And yesterday, at 5:30 PM, UPS arrived with my new machine!

I set about putting it together and storing it for now in the closet. I need to add, the machine was easy to put together and is very lightweight. About 10 pounds.

Perhaps later today I will pull up the rugs in the bathroom and wash the tile floors in there. This will give me an idea of how this works.

If it works the way I hope it will, washing my floors will not be as painful as it has been.

I am so happy!

This & That ~ October 10th

I think as we grow older, and if we are caregivers ourselves of a loved one, we tend to neglect ourselves. And so it has been for me. Tending to Jack, with his medical problems, keeps me very busy. I simply do not have time to tend to myself.

That being said, going in for my physical was a good thing. The findings made me realize I need to slow down a bit and make myself a priority.

I’ve been delaying going on cholesterol medications, but the new numbers are kind of dreadful, so I’m going to relent this time and start trying to find a medication that works for me, without messing up my other medications. Also, I know I need to get back to my walking, which I sort of gave up when Arnie became so ill.

If I am being really honest I will also stop eating a lot of red meat, and get back to more poultry and fish. Topping it all off with a lot of salads and vegetables. All things I love, but honestly, the last six months I have not been as careful as I should be.

So starting tomorrow morning…Monday…I start back strictly following the WW Green Plan. No more excuses.

And today I may even go for a walk. I will be lonely without my Arnie, but, who knows…one day I might have a new baby to walk with me.

Getting it Done!

So Friday found me on the road to see my new Primary Care Nurse Practitioner.

To say she is lovely, warm, efficient and the only medical professional who has ever treated me would be an understatement. Amy is all of those things and more.

I went in with a list of 5 problems I am having, and she went down the list and seriously addressed each and every one of them!

Finally! A medical professional that actually listens to me and is striving to get a handle on everything.

By the time I left her office, I had prescriptions for a UTI (yes, again), an appointment to have an MRI, and a knee x-ray. There were other things I needed her help with and she was so glad to help me.

The ride home for me was really busy. It was bumper to bumper from our tolls on route 93 north. This lasted for probably 15-20 miles. I wasn’t at all surprised because it’s a holiday weekend and everyone is coming up to go to local fairs and others to close up their summer camps.

I stopped to pick up my mail at the Post Office, only to find my little town in all stupidity has blocked off several more parking spaces. Now they have blocked any space for the disabled to park close enough to the building. Isn’t that against the law? It infuriated me.

A woman I know was defending it because a woman was killed in the crosswalk a few years back. I am sorry for this. But, it was a series of tragic events that led to it.

First, the woman was reading the mail in her hands and not looking as she crossed the road. The teenager who hit her was using his cellphone to text.

You get the picture. It was a rather unfortunate series of events. And now, now it’s making it difficult to get into the Post Office for most people. It’s making a local shipping store (which also has mailboxes) look better and better.

I came home to Lili who greeted me quite happily, and Jack, who was already eating his lunch.

All in all, Friday was a major success!