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Confessions of a Squeaker Killer

Summer is over...

Well, my favorite time of year has come to an end. Thankfully it has not let go easily and we have some hot weather this week. Mom hates it but I LOVE it. My tan isn't fading and I think that's great. All the boys at the dog park love a tan dachshund.

I have a couple of important things to tell you all about. First of all, if you get this email:
Alza Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson Company, is closing their Mountain View, CA. facility.
The animal test facility has 40, 16 month old beagle puppies that need good loving homes. These dogs were NEVER tested.

If you know of anyone, a rescue or are interested in helping give these puppies homes, please contact Rick Bible at: azoulaybible@hotmail.com

The facility manager will have to put them to sleep if no homes are found by OCTOBER 15TH!!

Thanks for your help!!!

It is a HOAX. The company in question is being absorbed into Johnson & Johnson and they are closing a facility, but the dogs that they test on are being moved somewhere else. The press release that they issued can be accessed here.

If you don't like the fact that they test on dogs, or any kind of animal for that matter, write them a letter and don't buy their products. Mom and I shop only cruelty free and we do it specifically because we don't want to support companies like Johnson & Johnson.

Next on the list. Do you need a new friend? Auntie C found out about some puppies here in New England that need homes. They were left in a box on the side of the road. They are 6 Black Lab Puppies and they are currently in Gloucester, MA. Send me a message if you would like to see a photo or if you want more information.

Well, that is about it for the moment. Mom tells me we have a friend visiting sometime in November and he's bringing me a dachshund to play with. I hope he's cute (the dachshund, the human is Mom's problem). I'm going to go get under a blanket now as it is October and, well, that's what we DO in October.

Be safe out there everyone.

W00f!
Thumbelina

Busy Spring

Well folks, since it is now officially Summer and since I haven't updated in a while I guess I should take command of the keyboard and let you all know what is going on. Grandma and Grandpa visited on Mother's day weekend and we went Antiquing with Auntie C. We went to this place called Brimfield. Brimfield was SO MUCH FUN. Mom and Grandma and Auntie C were poking around among old stuff that smelled interesting but I got to run around in these big fields and meet other dogs and smell all sorts of stuff. They were interested in the decrepit old things on the tables but I was interested in what was on the ground. These were farm fields people, they smelled *great*. Granted, the first day we were there it rained for about 4 hours, but mom carried in me in my outward hound sling so all that got wet was my head. Still, I had so much fun.

By the time we got home after two days I needed a bath so badly we went to Laundromutt. Those of you who know me know I hate baths, but this was a mostly painless bath. I highly recommend it. Grandma and Grandpa stayed for and extended weekend and then they went back to Pennsylvania. I miss them, they're two of my favorite humans. Sniff...

This past weekend was also crazy. Mom turned 30 so we went on an all day shopping extravaganza with Auntie C on Sunday. But, before all that on Saturday I got to go to work with mom and go to the Boston Dachshund Meetup. There must have been 60 weenie dogs there. Then, after work mom and I went to hang out with Auntie N. I got to spend the evening with my best friend Ivory the Goofy Greyhound. After a crazy day like that I got home and then we got up on Sunday and a-shopping we went. Fletcher, my boyfriend, came along, and we went all over the place. Fletcher and I got to consult on the purchase of antiques and we got all sorts of attention and treats. By the time Sunday was over I was a very tired girl.

So, that is all the news that is fit to print at the moment. I hope you are all well out there in Dogster land. I'll post more soon when I've had a chance to work on my tan.

Woof!
Thumbelina

Genius dog

Greetings out there in Dogsterland everyone.

I love mom, I really do. But sometimes I think that her opinion of me is a little low. You'll see on my statistics that I've rated myself as a genius. This is, of course, true. Hounds don't lie, even if we do make the occasional typo, keyboards were not made for dog paws.

This being said, two things I did lately so astounded mom that I'm beginning to worry that she doesn't fully appreciate my talents. Granted, she did shower me with treats and praise afterwards, but that's not the point.

Last week mom was home sick from work for a day. She slept in and spent the afternoon on the couch with me and the kitty boys sorting papers into boxes. Sometimes I'm not sure why humans do the things they do. Me, I'd have just peed on them and thrown them out, but to each their own I guess. Anyway, I digress. At some point my brothers hurtled off the couch from their supervisory perches on the back of the couch and pretty much plastered themselves against the TV cabinet, and then the book case, and then the TV cabinet, then the bookcase... you get the idea.

Then I smelled it. MOUSE.

You see, there are mice in the walls in the 2nd and 3rd floow of our building. We live on the 4th floor (the penthouse as mom's friend Scott calls it) and so far no mouse has been brave/stupid enough to come up here. We're a pretty fearsome bunch between the three of us and I like to think we do a good job of patrolling the perimeter and keeping the place locked down against intruders. Well, once I smelled the mouse wouldn't you believe that I rocketed right over there and joined in the chase.

To make a long story short(er) after much running about and trying to cram ourselves under the bookcase, mom finally helped out and dislodged the mouse from behind the bookcase. It ran into the bathroom where Smoky, who has much longer legs than I do, cornered it between the vanity and the bathtub. I was right behind him, ran directly underneath him, threw him out of the way, and snatched the mouse up in my jaws. At this point mom had joined us in the bathroom and shut the bathroom door. So when I closed my jaws and snapped the mouse's neck and dropped it on the floor right in front of her mom was shocked. I'm not sure why, really. I am, after all, a hunting dog that is supposed to do battle with BADGERS. A little mouse is nothing.

I wanted to eat it, especially after Smoky tried to take a swipe at it to play with it while it was twitching, but mom wouldn't let me. She gave me a bone instead, told me I was a good girl (like I didn't know already) and sent me and Smoky away while she dispatched of the mouse. (Humanely, of course.)

And then there was this morning. My brothers eat their breakfast on top of the microwave. This keeps me from getting into it (or so mom thinks...) My brother Smoky, aka The Turkey, eats his food really fast and then tends to throw it up all over the house. As a result mom has resorted to putting his food in a small bowl with a golf ball in it. This makes him slow down and it means that both boys finish eating at about the same time. Well, mom went in to feed the boys this morning and not only had Smoky pushed his food bowl down behind the microwave in the middle of the night, the golf ball was nowhere to be found. Mom looked for a few minutes and then gave up. She decided to just put her hand in the food bowl and hope that would suffice.

Being the smart dog that I am, I knew exactly what she was looking for so I went off, sniffed it out (it smells of cat food, yum, and I AM a scent hound, after all). When I walked into the kitched with it in my mouth and dropped it on the floor for her you would have thought that someone had just brought her the best present ever. She was so thrilled she gave me a handful of treats. This was not rocket science, I knew what she was looking for and I went and got it for her. Sometimes I worry about mom's nose when she can't sniff stuff like that out.

Anyway, that's the news from here. I hope you are all well out in Dogsterland. It's finally getting warm here so hopefully you'll all be out and romping soon without muddy paws.

Woof!
Thumbelina