Arnie – Page 11 – The Dackel Princess

The Bunny Boy

Each one of our dogs has their own unique personality. They also have their favorite toy, spot to sleep or favorite treat. Fritz has his “monkey”, Greta has a 12 inch rawhide bone and Anneliese has everything else in the house. But none have ever “arranged” their toys the way that Arnie does.

Arnie will carry his little bunny all over the house. Up on the window sill, or on the sofa. He will even carry it onto my bed and lie there with it if I am taking a nap. He places Mr. Bunny into position and then settle in next to him. The result of his work is priceless.

We never know when we will see him curled up with his new friend, or if he will share Mr. Bunny with us. (He usually does) One thing is for sure. Mr. Bunny really is his good friend!

PS: As I sit here writing this entry, Arnie jumped down, went and got Mr. Bunny and brought him up in the chair. We are now cuddled together! LOL!!!

Puppies, Puppies, So Much Fun!

Did you ever wish that you could run and jump and roll around in the grass with wild abandon and not worry that people would think you had lost your mind?

Okay, let’s face it, unless you are six years old, it’s not going to happen. However, watching the puppies gives me probably more pleasure than if I was actually doing it myself.

I love to watch them run, jump, tackle each other and roll down the hill while biting each other on the leg! You can almost see them smile while they are doing this.

I was watching today and I was thinking about the fact that they have been playing like this since they opened their eyes Christmas Eve! What a wonder it is to watch these two siblings grow, still best friends, still playmates.

Arnie

Anneliese

These puppies sure are keeping me young!

A Leg Up

You will all think I have lost my mind, but here is my Friday tale. Completely true, I assure you.

Arnie

Our neighbors own a very cute, but strange Schipperke male dog named Kodiak. Ever since they moved in, he has come over and wee-wee’d all over our yard. Fritz accepts this as he is Kodiak’s best friend and adheres to the my tree is your tree mode of thinking. Life is just the two boys romping around our back yard.

Now, Arnie has been watching Kodiak for some time. He hasn’t much cared for him since Kodiak nipped at him and Anneliese when they were about 12 weeks old. He watches and he waits and when Kodiak comes to call he barks like mad!

He also alerts me when Kodiak lifts his leg.

This morning Kodiak came to call. Arnie told me and I let Fritz outside to play with him. I could see Arnie sitting by the door, unhappily. He wanted to get out, he wanted to chase Kodiak away.

I smiled, but got on with my housework not thinking any more of it. By mid afternoon, Kodiak had gone home and Hubby suggested that we take the puppies out for some exercise, so we got their toy balls and out we all went. The dogs played and played and then I spotted Arnie. He was a little apart from Greta, Fritz and Anneliese.

I watched and watched and soon, what should he do? He went over to the corner of the cement basement and …

He lifted his leg and wee-wee’d right on the spot where Kodiak had gone that morning!!!

I mean he lifted that short little leg so high, I thought he might topple over, but he didn’t.

Hubby and I were so proud and we praised him over and over, while Hubby grabbed the hose and rinsed the corner off.

I guess our little boy is growing up!

Family Reunion Day 1

A Walk In The Mud

We arrived over at the family homestead just after lunchtime. The ride over was beautiful, as we drove through the little towns of Nova Scotia. The homestead is on the Bay Of Fundy in a spot where the tides are so great they literally go completely out and leave only wet mud flats in their wake.

The two puppies trotted out and I picked up Anneliese. I didn’t want her frightened by all the new people. This was the right thing to do, as she wasn’t at all freaked out and in the end, the two pups had a wonderful time.

The cousins all hugged and kissed and laughed and pictures were taken and beers were hoisted.

Shalena, Hubby and Barbara.

After we had all munched some goodies, Hubby’s cousin Billy decided that since the tide was out this would be a great time to go walking on the mud flats. Hubby immediately said yes, and I was horror stricken. I remembered the mud, the sticky mud from years past and I also worried about his knees. But he wouldn’t listen and off he went with a team of 11 of his cousins.

Heading toward the bay.

Down the ladder they go.

Right into all the thigh deep mud! What saved Hubby was his incredibly long legs, otherwise he would have been a complete muddy mess like the rest of them.

Eventually they made it out to the flats where they walked for a few miles. Never let it be said that a Canadian is not prepared. Here you will see his cousin carrying a cooler with beer for all!

Eventually they found a swimming area to play in and enjoyed that.

But when they returned I was ready with my camera to catch their muddiness! They all needed to shower off before we would allow them back in the house. Then I told Hubby all that I had planned to do to him had he fallen and really gotten messed up. Or worse yet, destroyed my good camera, which he insisted on taking with him!

The evening was spent eating a great dinner of Sea Bass and Deer steaks along with a salad and some fresh bread.

The two dogs continued to be sweet,

but around 8 o’clock we noticed them sprawled across the deck asleep. So we picked them up and headed back to the motel. I was pretty tired myself, and so I crawled into bed and fell almost instantly asleep, leaving my writing of Dackel Princess to this morning!

We head back to the homestead at noontime and will have a big party with the cousins who are already in town tonight, complete with some bluegrass music. Then Saturday night is the banquet and dance.

Off to have my coffee!

We made it!

I was at my wits end! I opened my notebook last night as soon as we got settled into our motel room. And NOTHING! I couldn’t connect. I tried everything, even invoking the powers of Harry Potter, and nothing!

I asked for help at the front desk. The lovely girl was no help at all. She uses Windows Vista and has never used an XP machine before.

Finally this morning I hard wired the machine in and voila! I got it going. So…

Here we are in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada. What a beautiful place this is. Nova Scotia, in general, reminds me of Cape Cod.

Our journey began at 6 AM yesterday with Arnie and Anneliese. Arnie was so easy in the car. He loves to look around and cuddle in your lap. But my poor baby Anneliese was afraid, and shook for the first half an hour. Now that we have traveled all the way here, including a three hour ferry ride, she is a seasoned traveler. In fact this morning when I went out to the car she came with me and hopped right in!

But I digress.

We drove from 6 AM until 2:30 to St John, New Brunswick where we sat waiting for the ferry. We were early and so we were first in line. The puppies moved from their crate in the back seat to the front seat and they were very busy checking everything out.

The pups in the car.

Anneliese with her Dad.

We got on the ferry and off we went. The first hour or so I sat reading Harry Potter while Hubby roamed the ship. The pups were safely in their crate below decks and so I was able to simply relax and read.

Our ferry.

Soon Hubby came back with a couple from Alberta Province and we all sat around talking for the rest of the trip. Another young man, who works for the government in Veteran’s Affairs joined us and it was so interesting to hear their views.

Coming into Digby

Once we got to Digby, Nova Scotia, then it was just a matter of time until we got to our motel. It’s a new, nice Super 8 and now that I actually have my Internet hookup I am very happy!

Today we will head over to the family homestead and catch up with the cousins who are already here.

Health Certificates and Suitcases

I took the puppies to the Vets on Monday for their Health Certificates. This way they can go to Canada and come back across the border. It was kind of exciting taking them back to the place where they were born. It seems like just yesterday that I held those tiny pups in my hand for the very first time, and now they are proper doggies. Large, (Arnie weighs 17 pounds and Anneliese is 14 pounds) able to walk around and make friends and sit and stay when told to do so. Okay, they’re still learning about that, but they’re trying.

The car ride was uneventful, which was good because Canada is a very long ride from here. We are leaving at 6 AM and do not expect to get to our motel until 9 or 10 PM. Yep, long day for puppies and humans!

I came home and got out the suitcases and we started to pack. All the puppy things are packed. The suitcases are on our bed and most of the clothing we plan to bring is folded neatly inside them.

That’s when I noticed one very big thing.

Greta.

Poor Greta knows we are leaving and she is not happy about it at all. She is sulking and giving us the cold doggy shoulder already. She knows. Fritz? Not so much. I know he will be a little upset when we go, but nothing like Greta. She really gets her nose out of joint!

Full Of Love

One day I think, I’m so in love with Arnie that I can’t imagine not having him. The next day I think I am so in love with Anneliese that I can’t imagine life without her. I already adore Fritz and Greta, and I couldn’t possibly choose between them, but now I have this whole new love affair going with the puppies. They are so sweet, so loving and yet, so different.

Fritz

is your usual big dog. He loves to be outside with his daddy and he loves more than anything to sit under the peach tree with as many toy balls as he can find. He can be sweet, but he is also independent, in a big dog sort of way.

Greta

is a sweet, loving dog, but she has a wildness to her that the others do not. She will chase down a mole in the field and watch for the cat next door to go and sun itself on the rock near our front window. She just loves to sit. To watch. And then bark to let us know that the gray cat is on our rock!

Anneliese

She stole my heart early on. At Christmas I told Uschi I thought maybe I was going to keep this little girl. She is a comical puppy. She loves to curl up and is full of love, but she loves to do what I call her commando crawl. She will have a toy in her teeth and then crawl across the floor like she is on a mission with the military. She is always full of kisses and although she is petite, she has a big spirit!

My surprise love is Arnie

I have never been a boy dog lover. My cousin is laughing at me about this, I am sure. Arnie came to us because the people who were due to buy him changed their minds. How lucky for me! Arnie is the sweetest of dogs. He wants to be in your lap, at your side, he follows me around the house and sits at my feet while I prepare meals or when I do the dishes. His heart is so big I can’t believe it. Of all he dogs, he is the one who is the easiest. He is the lover of all.

So I am hopelessly hooked on this wonderful group of dogs. How could I ever chose to have just one?

We Found It! (Or Puppy Pool Time!)

Today, just when I thought it was not going to be possible, Emily came running in and said, “I found the Puppy Pool!”

I called to make sure that the pool was, in fact there, and then the two of us raced off to get it.

It fit perfectly in the back of the station wagon and we got it home and immediately filled it up with crisp clean water! Today it was 90 degrees (F) and the pups were really enjoying the cool fun. Here is a small sample of our afternoon pool time.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kids, Dogs and Love

One of our little neighborhood girls came by. Our house is now the place where the kids come. They play with the dogs, help me with cooking or the gardening, but most of all, I think they come to talk.

Today Jacqui came by. She was feeling angry at her Mom for restricting her on playing on the trampoline before it was properly set up. I listened intently to all she said before I offered my words of wisdom. (Or what seems like wisdom to a 10 year old.)

I explained how much her mother loves her and would not want her to fall and break a leg or arm or worse yet to be killed. I told her how mothers always try to do their best to protect their kids.

She looked up at Katie’s picture and I explained that sometimes you can’t even do that, but at least Katie and I had spoken only words of love before the accident.

She was calmer when she left and I hope tonight when she kisses her mother goodnight there will be some real affection and understanding between them.

Meanwhile, the pups just get to be more and more fun. Arnie is nearly as big as Greta, while Anneliese remains petite. It is so hard to believe that they weighed the same at birth!

Hubby took this great picture of the three dachsies this morning while they watched the early morning activities on the lake.

Arnie, Anneliese and Greta

Yes, between the love from our dogs and for them as well, and the children of our neighborhood who seem to find their way to our home, and the love that exists between us, life is good.

Pssssssst! Don’t say anything, but Arnie hasn’t had an accident since I did all the painting in the puppy room. I picked up all the newspaper and never put them back down! And I think…he could be…TRAINED!!!!