Dachshunds and Other Dogs - Part I

Joyce and I were married on June 18, 1966 and were well enough acquainted to know that we both loved animals.  She loved dogs and cats, I loved dogs - almost the same thing.  However, unless guilt overtakes me, you will never read a blog written by me that pertains to felines.  Anyway, back to dogs.

In December of 1966, we decided the time for a puppy had come. My brother had a dachshund named Rusty whom I had seen and enjoyed on several occasions. Joyce had met him just once but must have been impressed because we started looking at the ads for dachshund puppies. Being the sage shoppers that we are, we bought the first one that we saw from a place in Edmond on Boulevard just south of Danforth. Everything north of Danforth was still country at that time. We named her Trixie for no apparent reason.

This is Trixie at about four months.  Yes, I used to smoke but I quit in 1975.  I will save the details of how that occurred for another blog.  We had Trixie bred probably when she was around a year old and her marriage to Sir Frederick Von DeeWee produced five beautiful puppies.  I must admit that this was the only time in my life that I have witnessed a live birth.  It was miraculous to see how Trixie nursed and cared for those puppies until we auctioned them off.  I gave one to my niece and we sold three of them but the last one was hard to get rid of so we decided to keep him and named him Trooper.  We later decided that living with your mother all of your days is probably not too healthy from a mental standpoint.  Trooper never seemed to develop any traits other than loyalty.

Trixie's main talent was playing with a tennis ball.  She wasn't much interested in chasing it, but she loved to chew it and tear the fuzzy cover off.  All that was left then was a slimy soft thin-skinned rubber ball.  She obsessed over those and she tore the ruffle off of more than one couch trying to get a slimy ball that she had pushed under the couch on purpose.  Thankfully, we couldn't afford expensive couches but we went through at least three before deciding to buy one without a ruffle that she could crawl under to retrieve her ball

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This is Trixie and Trooper inspecting Mike in November, 1972 when he came to live with us at 29 days of age.

Same dogs when Mike was four or five.

Mike will have to explain this one since that is his canteen and his skateboard.

Trixie and Trooper moved to the country with us in 1979 when we purchased a new house on 2.3 acres.  As I recall, they both died within the first couple of years after we moved.  Before we moved, we did have one other dog that we rescued from the city pound.  We named her Tricia (seems to be a pattern in our naming of dogs) but Mike called her Tricia Bends.  Again, he will have to explain that to you.  Here is Tricia.

She could best be described as gregarious and, as my dad used to say, full of piss and vinegar.  Sheri arrived in December, 1975 and Tricia had arrived a little before that.  Tricia did not understand gentleness and we were fearful that she would accidentally hurt Sheri so we called adopt-a-pet and she was gone.  After we moved to the country, I often wondered how much Tricia would have enjoyed the wide open spaces. Oh, well, such is life.  We weren't without a dachshund for very long but that story will be the next blog.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Is Jesus Christ your greatest love?  Today is the day of salvation.  His hands of love and mercy are out-stretched to you.  Please accept his grace while there is still time.