Dackel Princess

Thursday Thoughts

How I Became Owned By A Wire-Haired Dachshund.

Many years ago, Hubby took me to Starnberg, Germany. This is just south of Munich, in Bavaria. He wanted to introduce me to his friends, Lucie and Otto. I was a new bride and nervous about meeting his longtime friends. As I sat in their living room in bounded a small vivacious pup named Shubi. Shubi was a Rauhhaardackel (or wire-haired dachshund in English). Shubi understood no English and I spoke no German, but it didn’t matter, it was love at first sight!

Shubi climbed into my lap and we cuddled and kissed and for the next week wherever I went, I was followed by this love struck little man. When we parted I cried and all I would say to Hubby is, “I want a little Shubi dog!”
We made four more trips to Munich over the next four years and each time it was always the same. Shubi would instantly become my little love and follow me everywhere.
Sadly, we received a letter in Christmas 1995 telling us that Otto had become sick with cancer and that Shubi had escaped from their yard and been hit by a car. We were devastated.
In February 1996 we went to see Lucie and Otto again. The house was oddly still with no little man running about. It just wasn’t the same home it had been when Shubi was alive. I said to Lucie one day at lunch, that we should find puppies and have them together.
Otto overheard us and while Lucie and I went out shopping, he found an ad for Rauhhaardackel Puppies that were in Landshut, which was about 35 km east of Munich.
The next day we drove out and as we entered the kitchen of The Lanzingers, there in a small basket on the floor were three small puppies.
I went over and peered into a little face. The pup stood and tried to jump up to me. I picked her up and that was it. She looked me over, decided that I would do and after kissing my face clean, settled into my arms and snuggled.

Lucie selected a little boy.
As we traveled back to Starnberg, I was trying to think of a good name for my puppy. Hubby had been oddly silent finally said, “All I have heard for eight years is: ‘I want a Shubi dog! ‘ The dogs name is Shubi!”
And thus Shubi was named and she then adopted us and we became her responsibility in life. Her brother was named Toni.
I worried that bringing a puppy back with us would be difficult, but it wasn’t at all. She was three months old, had had all her shots and once we purchased a doggie passport and bought her a ticket we were all set. Shubi road in Business Class from Munich to New York. She was wonderful on the plane, and once we cleared customs Hubby rushed her outside and she did what all dogs do after a long trip.
We took Shubi back several times to Germany to visit her brother. The two would always act like they had not been separated for very long, and would play and play. Shubi would also remember the pathway to our room at our friends home.

Looking back now, these last ten years have been some of the happiest of my life.

Shubi

***Update***
I had Shubi in to the Vet’s and they repeated her blood work. The uremia is a bit better, showing that giving her the subcutaneous fluids is helping, but her liver is showing signs of stress and she is also becoming anemic. So the news is good and bad.
I had a heart to heart with both of the Vets about Shubi’s condition. Jack and I have talked and we need to decide what to do next.

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Here I sit. It’s 12:45 AM and Shubi has been vomiting for about 45 minutes. We were in bed when it started so I’ve already changed my sheets, but the blanket is totaled for tonight.
I’m sitting here because she doesn’t seem ready to sleep yet. She is sitting in her bed with her head up just staring into space.
I’ll have to call the Vet first thing in the morning. I can’t imagine that all this vomiting is a good thing.
It makes me so sad. I keep trying to make it better for her and yet I feel like I am failing.

Olympic Fever

I’ve been watching the Olympics, and I have decided I love the snow-board kids. Well, the boys at least. They are, like, way cool, man!
These kids can take their snow-boards and fly up and down the sides of the half-pipe as though they are weightless. They flex, they turn, they twist and then land, with the greatest of ease. I wonder why the snow-boarders at Waterville and Loon Mountains don’t handle themselves the same way. The only thing I have seen those kids fly over was my back after they knocked me down…but I digress.
I watched “The Flying Red Tomato“, Shawn White on Saturday. He was poetry in motion. He’s made me actually enjoy watching the snow-boarding! And when he was done with his run and had a microphone shoved in his face he was humble and nice and emotional and he liked his parents. That was great to see.

I’ve also enjoyed the USA Women’s Hockey Team. These women are really something. Their hustle, their stick handling, their spirit, puts a lot of the NHL teams I’ve seen lately to shame. I’m pretty proud when I watch these women representing our country. Their victory over Finland was breathtaking! I hope they do for women’s hockey what The USA Women’s Soccer Team did for women’s soccer!

Bode Miller is proving to be a real disappointment. It seems that when it really has mattered how he skied, he has skied poorly. Too bad. He has the talent, and the opportunity that you and I will never have, and he is blowing it.

I’m looking forward to more skiing, more skating, (both figure and hockey) and, yes, even more snow-boarding. (If only they’d stay in their half-pipes!)

Pucker Up!!!

I have never been one to tell stories about myself that I find incredibly mortifying, but since things around here have been very serious and a tad depressing lately, I thought, what the heck, I’ll confess to everyone what happened to me today. So, sit back, grab a cup of coffee and prepare to laugh hard.

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I needed to go out today to get supplies from the grocery store. I had a list. I was fairly organized. I wanted to go out, do my errands and get back as quickly as I could.
Hubby decided to go. He is working out with his crutches now each day to gain strength in his upper arms and going to the stores with me was a great way to practice and get some things done.
So off we went. We got to Wal-Mart and Hubby stopped at the service desk to get a money order for an Ebay purchase. I wandered into the household goods section for a few items and then headed over to the dog food, where I met up with Hubby. I selected a dozen cans of food which Hubby questioned me on.
“I thought they liked the chunky food?” Hubby asked.
“No, Fritz is picky, he likes the ground food.”
“Didn’t he used to eat the chunky food?”
“Yes, but then he decided to he didn’t like it.” I answered. “Besides I think he gets more out of the ground food cans than the chunky ones.”
I then started walking and talking. This is a dangerous thing for me to do.
“I can’t believe how picky Fritz is, but at least after the first year I have finally gotten him settled on his food and there are no surprises.” I looked around a little thinking about Valentines Day. “I wonder if they have the pads for your crutches here. You poor thing. I hate to think of you on those crutches.”
And then I did it. I turned puckered up to give Hubby a nice sympathetic kiss and ran smack into a strange man! Hubby was about 10 paces behind me struggling with the crutches and there was this man, right in my puckered up face!
I could feel my face burn! I tried as quickly as I could to unpucker and just weakly smile, but I think for a moment I must have looked like a giant Trout!
The man smiled, and his eyes twinkled and I wished I could have just crawled into the display case and hidden! I stood waiting for Hubby, and the strange man moved past me.
Hubby caught up to me, none the wiser and all I could think of was getting out of the store.
We finished up our shopping, checked out and once I was in the car I confessed all to Hubby who laughed heartily.
I can still feel my face get hot when I recall what happened. I don’t often accost strange men in Wal-Mart. Well, maybe only at Christmas!

Thank You, Mother Nature!

I will now get down on my knees and thank Mother Nature for depositing all the snow south of me!

Yesterday’s snow storm didn’t amount to very much up here in central New Hampshire. In fact when I woke up on Sunday morning it wasn’t snowing at all (big smile)!!!
It did start to snow after 9 in the morning, and I was prepared to go out and do battle with the snow shovel, but then it just stopped.
I went out, looked up into the sky and saw, well, nothing coming down from it! This lasted for a couple of hours and then it did start up again, but the snow was just that teasing sort of snow. Looks pretty, but doesn’t amount to anything much.
By the time all was said and done we had one inch. Yes, you heard me right, one inch! After I started breathing again (with relief), I realized that sometimes wishes do come true!

Shubi did well yesterday. I did have to give her more fluids, but she did well with it and a short while after that she ate some lean pork. Later she ate some more. I can see where the fluids really perk her up, so yes, it made it a lot easier for me to do it again.

It was bath day for little Greta. She is not a fan, but was very good in the shower. Once she was done and I took her out to dry her off, she slipped through my fingers and off she ran! Down the hall, into the office to where Hubby was seated at his computer. She jumped up on the bed, then down on the rug, rubbing her fur onto anything and everything that she could!

I don’t know what it is about the commercials on TV right now, but so many of them have nice music on them. Maybe it’s because people my age are the senior advertising executives now and they all remember 70’s music as being some of the best! So, rock on commercials!

If you haven’t caught the USA Women’s Ice Hockey Team playing yet, mark your calendars. These ladies are hot, hot, hot! I haven’t seen play like this in a long time. They are really good!

Daydream Believer

I’ve been enjoying the IT commercials for Ebay during the Olympics. Why, you might ask? Well, because they have Davy Jones singing, “Daydream Believer”
First, I have always liked that song and second, it makes me think back to New Years 1990 when I was in Athens, Greece sitting in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel waiting for Hubby to fly in (He was working a flight). I was sitting there waiting when I see a group of people walk into the lobby. Yep, you guessed it, it was Davy Jones and his family!
He looked great, and I thought how he had hardly aged at all since his days with the Monkee’s. I hated to bother him, but I couldn’t let the moment pass.
I went over and introduced myself, telling him that I have always enjoyed his music (gush, gush!!), and that I was really thrilled to meet him.
He was just the nicest person, as were his wife and kids I stood speaking with him for a while before their room was ready and they departed.
Yes, I got an autograph!
So when Hubby came in a while later and expected me to greet him with excitement, all I could talk about was Davy Jones! LOL!!
So listening to the IT commercials for Ebay brings that time quite happily back to me.

Being A Doggie Nurse

I can add a new item to my resume. I’m now a full fledged needle wielding doggie nurse to Shubi! I set up Shubi’s fluid bag on the door of our bedroom. Hubby sat in his chair and held Shubi in his lap. I took a deep breath and I placed the needle under Shubi’s skin and gave her 250 cc’s of fluid. At one point the fluid stopped running and I had to take the needle out and put it in another spot. But I did it and she got all her fluid. It didn’t seem to bother her at all.
I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it, that I would chicken out, but when I thought of my girl and what she needed I just pulled myself together and did it!
She slept for a while and I thought that perhaps my tender ministrations hadn’t done anything. But at dinner time tonight she perked up and ate some dog food, and then actually ate some of Hubby’s very lean pork. Now she is happily asleep again on the sofa curled up with Greta.
I’ll need to do this again tomorrow, as the Vet wants her to have this every day now. I know I can do it, and I also know that it really helped my girl. I hope next time will be a bit easier (for me).

Shubi…

Friday was a strange day. Most of the morning I spent at the Vets Office with Shubi. She went in for blood work and because she is still not doing well, they taught me how to give her subcutaneous fluids. She will need me to give this to her daily now.
Yes, her kidneys are failing, and she doesn’t want to eat much. Yet, she runs and plays with the other dogs, and follows me from room to room. I don’t think she is ready to leave us yet. I’ve been trying to ask myself, how I will know when it is time? And then I hear a voice on the wind that says, “you will just know”.
So I have to have faith that I can care for her and give her all that she needs until her time here on earth is up. Still it breaks my heart knowing that my dearest friend will soon leave me.
I’m not ready for that! The truth is, I’ll never really be ready for that, will I?

Memories of Murdock Street

When I was a little girl my grandparents lived in Brighton, Massachusetts. They lived there until I was 10 years old, and then moved down to Cape Cod to be near us.
In my mind I can still see my grandparents house in Brighton. It was large with a down stairs apartment and then their part of the house on the second floor and then on the third floor another apartment. In the down stairs apartment lived my grandfather’s sister Hedwig and her husband Albert. What I remember most about them was Hedwig’s fabulous cooking. It seemed she always had cookies and hot cocoa when I would sneak down the back stairway to visit her.
The middle floor was my grandparents part of the house. It was very large with a screened porch in the front, a phone on a table in the hallway, and then a big living room which led into a large dining room with a bay window, I often sat there looking out of the windows. This led into a kitchen with an old fashioned pantry. I loved this little room because I could climb up on the counter and find cookies. (yes, I admit, I am a cookie monster!)
Off the kitchen was a hallway that led to a big bathroom, and then my grandparent’s bedroom next to that. I remember going into their bedroom in the early morning and climbing into bed with them for cuddles. Papa Fred and Grandma Honey really loved their grandchildren.
Upstairs was where my uncle, his wife and their two kids lived. Originally this was where my mother and uncle had their rooms when they were kids. When we stayed there I would sleep in my cousin’s room.
Being the baby of the family (both of my first cousins were 8 and 10 years older than me, and my brother was 7 years older and Mel is 5 years older), I was always the first one sent to bed. I hated that until I learned that if I snuck quietly into my aunt and uncles room I could open the floor grate and listen to the adults below.
My memories of Brighton are good ones. My grandparents were both still in good health and family parties were always a lot of fun. Back then when they had the parties for the family, everyone would come and I got to see my grandfather’s brother’s and their families. I remember once telling Papa’s brother how much he looked like my Papa and he laughed heartily.
Grandma’s older sister Tilly was always there too. She was my Godmother. She was always quick with a smile and often would play ragtime songs on the piano.
Tilly’s son was George and his wife my “Uncle Betty” (that I have written so much about), and their kids,
Janet and Larry.
Janet and I have always been close. She is just a year older than me and we were always inseparable at these family events. Larry was a year younger and I was grateful to him because I wasn’t the baby when he was around.
Funny how you can remember things from so long ago and find much that pleasures the mind and soul. So many of those people are gone now, and yet, in my mind I can walk through that house and they all come to life again.
Wonderful, warm memories for a Friday.

Programming

So what did I do all day yesterday? Yep, you guessed it…I spent all day programming my new laptop. Things were going pretty well, when McCaffee Anti-Virus and I had a little trouble understanding what the other one wanted.
This resulted in my having to go back in time on the machine (isn’t time travel wonderful?), and then start the programming all over again.
I was a bit frustrated for a while, but after this one glitch, the rest of the entries went well. The machine is now programmed and meeting my needs. Just a few more minor things to tweak and it’ll be completely done.
One thing that is different is the scroll bar on the laptop. It’s quite a bit different from my other computer. I think I like the other one better, but in time I will get the hang of this one.
I love the ultra bright screen! You really can see things much better with this. And the color is so rich.
I think Hubby is probably a bit sick of me spending all this time on the machine, but he is relieved that he doesn’t have to schlep out to Wal-mart and get me a card and a box of candy for Valentines Day next week!