Bedtime

Last night, as I lay trying to sleep, three little dackels endeavored to push me out of bed. With their paws on my back, and their faces pressing there too, I nearly fell on the floor a few times. I must say that I’m getting very good as sleeping half awake! It’s either that or I will end up on the floor in a shocked heap!

Why do I let them sleep with us? Well, it goes back a long way. Here is the story, and I swear it is true!

Fifteen years ago, we were in Bavaria visiting our friends. Their dackel, Shubi, a handsome wire-haired dachshund, had recently been hit by a car and killed. We were all saddened, and their house was eerily quiet. I said, in my sympathy, that we should both get dackels!

Then Hubby and I went off to shop for socks because I had forgotten to pack them (he still taunts me about this), and when we returned, Otto had found an add for dackels in nearby Landshut. He had called and made an appointment for the next day.

We drove to Frau Lansinger’s house and we entered her kitchen and there in a basket by the stove were four small dackels. I looked down and immediately I knew I had found my puppy! She looked right up at me and I swear she smiled. I picked her up, and I knew…Magic!!!

So we paid Frau Lansinger, and I wrapped the puppy in a blanket and our friends bought her brother, and we headed back to their home.

The little puppies were a delight. We joke and teased about what to call them, and Hubby looked at me and said that it simply had to be Shubi! So Shubi she was, and her brother was named Toni.

The first night away from their mother, we put them together in a little box, but when everyone had gone to sleep I snuck them in the bed with us.

“No, no” said Hubby, who returned them to their box. And so it remained while we were there.

Eventually we left to come back to the USA, and bring our little puppy home.

We flew from Munich to Atlanta and the to Florida, where we were living at the time. It was a long day for a baby dog, but she did surprisingly well in her little carry on.

When we reached our home in Florida, Hubby once again insisted that we put Shubi in a box to sleep. But from the corner of our room I could hear her soft, pitiful cries. I said nothing, but my heart was breaking.

Finally Hubby got up and picked up Shubi and brought her into bed with us…where she remained for the rest of her life.

Needless to say, when Greta came and then the two puppies, Arnie and Anneliese, they all joined us, too.

We do draw the line at Fritz coming into bed with us, although during a bad storm last week he jumped right up between us.

So you see, gentle readers, my husband is a real softie when it comes to our dogs, and you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way!