Last night we weren’t watching TV and the remote was safely on top of the night stand, so what hit the side of the bed?

You guessed it right, a Dachshund.

Chloe has been having a difficult time finding a “safe” place to sleep on our bed.  She usually sleeps on our son’s bed so there’s be plenty of room for the four of us.  But with the summer break, he’s been staying up late and Chloe been with us during the night.

It’s not really all that bad since the two girls sleep at the foot of the bed and Odie in between us, but I had a nightmare  and end up kicking Chloe hard enough to make her yelp out of her sleep.

I typically don’t react to the dream state and it was a weird dream coming back from LAX on a bus through some of the less desirable neighborhoods. When some thugs decided to pull a knife, the reflexes kicked in an Chloe got the brunt of it.

Since that “Freddy Kruger” episode, Chloe moved from the foot of the bed to edge of the bed and out of kicking distance.

But apparently, she doesn’t know that I also like to knee “Freddy” in the groin and she went sailing off the bed landing 3 feet below with a “clunk.”

I picked her up and she went to the safety of the center of the bed.  At least that’s what she thinks for now…

The new PetSmart store well within walking distance and I can only imagine how often they’re going to get a new ball as a reward.

The store is very clean and outfitted with lots of oops stations.  I can never understand how dog owners let their dogs pee and poop in the store, but it does happen.  I guess they just get excited about all the toys, treats and other dogs running around marking their territory.

The store was surprisingly empty, but it’s a brand new shopping center and PetSmart hasn’t done much advertising to announce the opening.  There was a little dachshund puppy named Andie joyously and curiously inspecting the squeaky toys I was testing.  (Of course I picked the loudest toy!)   Andie approved of the selection so we bought a set of three.

Our Doxies Like the Newbury Park PetSmart and can’t wait to return.

The first time Chloe when to work, she peed on the carpet on top where another Take Your Dog to Work Day dog previously peed. Apparently she’s housebroken but not office broken.

Then while I’m trying to work, she just had to sit in my lap which basically made it impossible to work. Eventually she settled down and slept at my feet until…

Someone poked their head in my cube and she let out one fierce bark. The sound of it was magnified 10x because she was under the desk so she must have sounded like a really big dog.

Odie was the same way. He would climb into my lap an try to sleep. He was worse than Chloe since his boney legs really start poking into you after a while. Too bad he doesn’t have a little more padding like Chloe.

The President of the Company I was working for at the time had several Dacshunds and just had to take Odie for a walk around company to show him off. I went to pick Odie up a little later in his office only to find that Odie left a nice little doggy sausage for me to cleanup.

So today is Take Your Dog to Work Day. It’s Molly’s turn. It should be interesting. Dachshunds are not office broken.

Not that I let them eat the whole donut, but my Dachshunds sure have a taste for the the warm glazed donuts just out of the oven.

The funny thing is that when the four of us go for a walk, Chloe, Odie and Molly go in different directions. But if you say “lets go get a donut,” they’re headed off intently to get their donut.

So today is Dachshund Donut Day, take a walk with your doxie down to your favorite Donut shop and celebrate it with him.

His recorded message, said “If this is truly a pet emergency, please call …”

It was obvious that Molly was in distress; her right eye swollen shut. We were outside most of the afternoon working in the backyard. Did she get something in it? Was she stung by an insect?

Is this truly an “emergency?” Thinking back, when Chloe was stung by an insect, it was simply Benadryl and baby aspirin. The problem I had was that I couldn’t remember the dose. And Molly didn’t have the allergic “swollen face” reaction like Chloe had.

Yes, this was an emergency. We drove Molly over the the Thousand Oaks Animal Hospital to have her examined. Of course, as soon as we get there, her eye opened up and I’m starting to get embarrassed for my over reaction, especially …

When all the dogs coming in we’re real emergencies. A dog fight here, a stabbing there. I’m starting to feel like I’m at the County Hospital.

It took about an hour for them to see Molly. The first thing they asked was “does she need to be muzzled?” Strange question coming from a Vet. Yes. Her eye is painful and you want to examine it. You want to take her rectal temperature? Yes, like you, she hates things getting inserted in it. (And she certainly hates dryer sheets getting pulled from it.)

She’s running a fever. Good that’s a start. Her body is fighting an infection. The Vet drops local anesthetic into both eyes. Says he’ll back in 5 minutes. Fifteen go by. He’s now looking at the paw of the stabbed German Shepard puppy which got in the way when it’s owner dropped a knife from the kitchen counter top.

He comes back with a technician. Apparently I’m not doing a very good job at holding Molly, cause she’s violently trying to escape my hold. The technician does a great job and the Vet finally tells us that he needs to put in one more set of drops in 15 minute intervals, and then put in a stain to examine her eyes for any scratches or debris.

Exactly what I needed to hear. They do the last set of drops, wait. Stain. Wait. Come back and examine Molly’s glowing yellow stained eyes. One more test… Tonometry to test the pressure and Molly goes off to the back room for the test and comes back 15 minutes later.

We wait around for another 45 minutes to check us out of the Hospital. The receptionist starts going over the Dr’s instructions for the medicine. except that the Vet never came back to tell us what was Molly’s problem. The Dr. is on the phone. Wait another 15.

Tentative diagnosis: anterior uveitis OD, idiopathic. He doesn’t know if it was blunt trauma or bacterial. He treats her for the inflammation, pain and an antibiotic; two different drops and one pill for pain and inflammation. Start treatment tonight.

After 4 hours, it’s nearly the next day by the time we get home from the Thousand Oaks Animal Hospital. We’re all tired, but Molly is really good and lets me put the drops in her eye. She didn’t need a muzzle after all.

Dachshunds are escape artists! When Molly was a puppy, she would always escape her pen during the day to greet us at the door. We always put the blame on our son for letting the puppy run around the house when she was not quite potty trained.

But now we know the truth… Odie had a helping nose in it and let his little friend out!

I received a very clever email from Nancy asking if I would consider reviewing her new site. Normally, I turn down such requests, but since she said she was a dog portrait artist and attached a few of her wiener dog paintings, the least I could do is take a quick look.

I love art, especially wiener dog art. My home office is covered with all sorts of Dachshund paintings and drawings. My first peek at her painting simply got me laughing! Here’s a picture of my three dogs on our good sofa; Molly on top looking out the window; Odie on the foot stool; and Chloe getting ready to run to the door to greet us.

I just had to see her site…

Besides being a really good dog portrait artist, Nancy demonstrates abstractness with a keen sense of dog humor. I rolled out of my chair laughing at Schooooch Pooch (my name) where a dog is enjoying his ride a little too much across a very expensive carpet.

I enjoyed visiting Nancy’s site. See paints really Good Dog Art!

Cafepress is a very interesting site. I found out about it about a year ago when I wanted to create some coffee mugs for my business. You simply upload an image, place an order and you get coffee mugs. Of course, once you create the product you can then sell them to customers directly from the sight.

When I find the right pictures, I’m planning to create a few “Dachshund” mugs of the Three Doxies. Perhaps a dachshund t-shirt of Molly would be a real sweet gift I can make for my wife. (She just loves Molly to death.)

Now, back to my original thought; the ad said “One Dachshund is never enough.” Whomever, came up with that slogan had to get that idea from Three Dachshunds.com. I don’t know how many times I’ve told my wife that “three dachshunds is never enough,” but she’s threated me with divorce if I ever looked at another Doxie.

So now I just collect all sorts of Dachsund things from coffee cups to paintings. I just know I’m going to spend all my time and money at cafepress.com.

American Company to Offer Dog Cloning Service at International Public Auction
BioArts International (BioArts), today announced that it will sell five dog cloning service slots to the general public via a worldwide, online auction to be held June 18th.

The first thought that cross my mind was “would the ‘new’ Odie have back problems.” That is, cloning should produce the same genetic defects, could I relive the pain Odie went through when he ruptured his disk? Probably not.

Then again, if the ruptured disk was injury related, and not genetic, I probably could.

Would he have the same temperament? That seems to be environmental so he would be a different dog.

Sorry, somethings are best left alone. Would you clone your Dachshund?

It’s was strange that a picture of a Dachshund was prominently posted in the upper left hand corner of the poster. I had to ask myself “do Dachshunds bite?”

Now, being owner of three Dachshunds, I have to admit that I’m biased. But like all dogs, Dachshunds do bite.

I don’t think that Chloe would ever bite anything. She is the most passive loving dog we have. Molly is timid, will bark, run away and never bite unless really provoked.

Odie, on the other hand, is very protective. I fear that he would bite someone if they got too close and he wasn’t on a leash. Fortunately, our Dachshunds never have bitten anyone.

It doesn’t mean that they won’t. We’re just careful and introduce them to strangers so that they will know they are not a danger to us. Like all dogs, you really need to keep Doxies leashed and under control.