The End Of The Day

Thursday was one of those incredibly busy days. Both Hubby and I had appointments with his knee surgeon. I wanted to have him look over my knee as well as the MRI and get his opinion.

His opinion was that he sees a tear in the meniscus. The MRI was not clear enough to tell how big of a tear, and right now he wants to give it a few more weeks so that the Medial Collateral Ligament has a chance to completely heal. Then we will assess how the meniscus is.

Hubby is the real star patient of our family. Two knee replacements and he is back to skiing and walking everywhere and basically, he is the Poster Child for knee replacement surgery.

We returned to the house to find all the doggies happy to see us, and got them all outside for a nice play session, before bringing them in. And because so many of you asked, here are a few pictures of my beautiful babies.

Leaping Lizards it’s Arnie!

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And his little sister Anneliese

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And now as the day ends and I sit down to watch a little TV I thought you would enjoy seeing what my chair looks like a great deal of the time.

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The One About The Bath

Today was “Bath Day For Dachshunds” here at the Dackel Princess house. Although Greta is a seasoned bath champ, this was the very first bath for Arnie and Anneliese. To say it was comical would be an understatement!

We have a walk in shower with a seat in our bath. I got all three dachshunds into the shower, closed the door and began my work. I turned on the shower gently and got the water nice and warm, all while Arnie cried. Here we had two girls and one boy and the boy was the one sobbing!

I started with Anneliese and got her wet, soaped her up with the nice oatmeal soap. Then held her close to my chest while I rinsed her off. Yes, I am a real hands on Mom who believes that if the baby gets a bath, so do you. Anneliese was a good girl and she never made a peep.

Next was Arnie. He cried the entire time, even though I tried to sooth him. I can see that I will have to work on this with him over some time. He is a real chicken and doesn’t like the water at all. He lathered up well, and rinsed and then I was onto Greta.

She is an old pro and stood majestically in front of the seat so I could sit down while I lathered her up. Then she walked under the shower stream and rinsed herself off, with very little effort from me.

After I finished my bit in the shower, I got out first and dried off, then got Greta, and lastly the puppies. I dried Arnie first (he was still crying) and then when I moved onto Anneliese he scurried off into the lavatory part of our bathroom, still crying.

I called to him several times after I opened the door to return to the family room, but all he did was cry. I finally went to investigate and found him trapped between the magazine rack and the toilet! I pried him out and then put the pups in their room while I dressed.

Naturally I was overcome with the “mother of all hot-flashes”, and it took me a few minutes to get back to check on them. What should I find when I did get back? One of them had dragged the newspapers to the gated entry and then pooped on it and both of them had been jumping in the poop!

So I picked up Arnie and went to the sink and washed his feet and tail (again) and then did the same with Anneliese.

We are currently sitting in my chair, both the puppies are asleep next to me after their horrible baths! LOL They do, however, smell wonderfully fresh and clean!

Odor d’Puppy

I can tell that my cold is getting better. I can smell things again! Now having the use of your nose can be good or it can be bad. It all depends on the scents around you. In my case, I have two puppies that are being house broken, and although I have been pretty diligent, today I just could not get “odor d’puppy” out of my nose.

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Anneliese & Arnie

I made up a super mixture of cleaning solution and deodorizer, scrubbed the floors with that and then all I could smell was “odor d’puppy with deodorizer“! That simply would not do. I sprayed that stuff that says it kills all odors in your house, you know, like teenage boys sneakers! Nope, it didn’t work!

So I got out my old standby, orange cleaner and I’ve washed the floors with that. All I can say is thank the good Lord in Heaven! I’d rather be smelling oranges than “odor d’puppy“!

Hubby came in as I was finishing up washing the floors for the second time and he asked what I was doing. I told him that all I could smell was a dog kennel smell. He laughed and told me to get used to it. I stared at him coldly. “No way! I can be cleaner!”

Then it dawned on me. This means I will have to wash my floors maybe a couple of times a week!

Quick!! Someone come over here and sneeze on me so I get my cold back!

Feeling Loved

I want to know how Carol Brady did it? How did she have 6 children and have them all grow up happy and healthy and seemingly well adjusted? Here I am with 4 dogs and I’m working pretty hard to give each of them “quality time” each day.

I noticed that Greta was a little grumpy the other day and was doing all sorts of things to get my attention. So I spent time focusing just on her. So what happens? The two puppies revert back to wee-weeing in unwanted places! All I can say is Thank God for the “Big Green Clean Machine” carpet cleaner!

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Fritz is the only one not demanding a lot of attention these days and so I feel guilt ridden about that and work hard to pat and speak lovingly to him.

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Today I felt so outmatched that I thought perhaps my only recourse was to hire a puppy nanny. Someone to come in and take the dogs for walks, clean up there messes, while I sit here and eat bon-bons and pat my little friends.

But no. Where’s the fun in that? Why once I get the puppies house broken, I will have that accomplishment to revel in! I’ll be in the grocery store talking to the Deli man saying stuff like, “And I house trained two puppies, at the same time and it was still winter!” He, of course, will look at me and exclaim, “Wow! I’ve only read about people like you!”

So after I’d cleaned the carpet for the second time and walked the puppies for the 10th time today, in the rain, (don’t you feel bad for me?) I sat down with both little pups and Greta in my lap and Fritz by my feet, and I was actually grateful for these four furry wonders. I felt so loved.

I know. Just call me crazy!

The Puppies Are 15 Weeks!!!

I’d planned on a nice quiet Sunday, but that didn’t happen. I awoke to find that I didn’t have enough eggs for breakfast for two, and there for would need to take a trip to the grocery store. So Hubby and I walked the pooches, and then headed off to get food.

The best I can say about our shopping trip was that it was interesting to people watch while we pushed the cart through the store. There were families shopping. This proved to be amusing because some of the husband/wife combo’s made sense, while others simply were amusing. Like, “how the heck did they ever get together?”.

Our trip was a short one and we returned home to play with the pups. Since our back yard is a vast sea of wet and mud I didn’t want to keep the puppies out there too much. So in we came, toweled them dry and set about playing.

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Arnie

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Anneliese

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Playing with one of Greta’s big bones.

We watched them in awe and laughed a lot. Fritz is becoming more and more comfortable and does well with them.

But one thing I hadn’t considered is Greta. My poor little girl is a little jealous of all the attention the puppies are getting. In the last few days I have tried to spend some quality time with her. Funny. Dogs are like kids in so many ways.

This And That Sunday

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. I got the leashes and walked the pups, who were having so much fun in the snow that they didn’t want to think about why we were there. I finally got them to “concentrate”, and then we came in to play.

I now have my morning routine down. I set up the coffee maker the night before, so when I am on the way out the door with the puppies, I flip on the coffee maker. When I come back in the coffee is made. Ahhhhhh!

So back to today. I sat down, turned on my computer and let it boot up. Once I downloaded my email I realized that I hadn’t written anything for today’s entry! Oh no! How could that be? Call it exhaustion from my never ending cold. It is my only excuse. That, and now that I am the mother of two 15 week old puppies, I am busy from morning until night!

For those of you who have asked how “Uncle” Fritz is doing with the two babies, I thought I would end today’s post with three pictures of him playing with Arnie.

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Arnie The Wonder Boy!

I have to tell you. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I thought about selling Arnie! He is such a doll and such an easy going, sweet boy and I feel like I fell in love with him a long time ago and just didn’t know.

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You see, I’m prejudice. I do not usually like boy dogs. I’m a “girl dog” person. I’ve always had them, always found them easier to train and somehow found them easier to snuggle with.

Arnie is changing all of that. He comes over and falls down on my feet. He sleeps on my toes, in my lap he wriggles and cuddles and then settles in to sleep. Arnie kisses my chin and looks up into my eyes and makes me feel like I am the only one in the world for him.

He also was the first of the two puppies to crack Fritz.

Fritz was just terrified of the two puppies. He would moan and groan and bare his teeth. What did Arnie do? He lay down, flipped over on his back and took his front paws and tickled Fritz on the chin. At first Fritz wasn’t buying this, but slowly he started to warm up to the little guy. Now Fritz is really doing well. He allows the puppies to run around him, he isn’t growling and I think he actually likes them now.

And it is all because of Arnie! Yes, he is quite a boy!