Happy 3rd Birthday Godiva!!!

Happy third birthday to our little puppy girl Godiva!

According to one independent expert, three is when dachshund puppy girls grow up. We have been counting down the days. Gone are the days of 2AM wake-up calls and eating beds and chewing toes (human's and Mr. Hiney's) and whining incessantly for dinner. Finally we can leave our dirty socks on the floor where they belong. The laundry hamper is going back to IKEA! Yup, we're going to really enjoy the new Godiva and it all starts today...because it sure wasn't that way yesterday.

No matter what, we wish Godiva the happiest birthday ever (it better be, we spent enough on presents and cards). She may even get an extra bellyrub out of the deal.

(Fun added bellyrub update. When Godiva wants a bellyrub in the morning, I make her wait until I am out of the shower, dried off, and dressed. The last part of the equation is putting my pants on. So, if she is not in the room, I will call for her, "Godiva, I'm putting my pants on" and she comes running down the hall. The last couple of days, whenever I am putting on pants, morning, changing after work, putting on pajamas at night, Godiva thinks that is bellyrub time. When she sees pants, she runs up the stairs to the bed and rolls over. And of course, I give in. This of course wouldn't be an issue if we lived in a pants-free society as I have been lobbying for since the late '80's. Damn societal hang ups.)

A Christmas Miracle

No, nobody saved a life, or rescued a child from a presentless Christmas, or made a 7 course meal out of gruel and tree bark. But I think this ranks right up there.

Take a look at the following picture:

Looks like an ordinary stocking ornament on a tree, right?

Now take a look in a wider context:

Looks like the ornament is near the bottom of the tree. Nothing extraordinary there still, no?

Now look at this picture:


Uh, oh. Trouble.

Here is the miracle. That stocking stayed in that position on the tree for a whole month of December. We had bet it would be gone by the 3rd.

Top that Tiny Tim!

Daddy, I’m a Big Girl Now

Godiva is done with puppy food and for some reason, I am desperately sad about it. Probably because it came too soon, in a couple of ways.


We were prepared to stop giving her puppy food after her first birthday in March. She was running out of her puppy food last week, so I went to the puppy food store for a final bag. However, they were out of the small bags of her food. All they had was a giant bag that would have lasted her until she was two and a half. The store clerk convinced me that 11 months is fine to make the full transition to adult food. So, I bought another bag of Couper’s food and headed home.

It isn’t as if she has not had Couper’s food before. From the first day we had her, she has tried to sneak over to his bowl to steal his food. I am not sure if that is because she preferred his food, or she just likes to steal stuff (like socks for instance). Just in case she preferred it, we always sprinkled just a little of his food in with her food. I am not going to miss getting two dog food bins out at feeding times, or buying different bags of dog food at different times at the puppy food store.

So why is this sad? Puppy food was the last connection we had to Godiva as a puppy. She is almost as big as Couper. She has been fixed. She is potty trained. She actually goes into her kennel when asked. She destroys things less frequently. Yes, she does steal socks and bite hands as always, but she will grow out of that as well.

There were many times during her puppyhood that we could not wait for her to grow up. Now that she has, we miss it. We reminisce about how little she was when we got her. We now laugh about her screaming in the middle of the night those first few weeks. It makes no sense. And now her puppyhood has ended a month too early.

But before she thinks she all grown up, she should know this: Couper is 6 years old, and we still call him our puppy.

The Dachshund Who (Almost) Stole Christmas

Godiva’s favorite thing in the whole wide world is to take stuff that she is not allowed to have, and get chased around the house until she has to give it up.  She likes that better than chewing human hands.  She likes that better than eating bird poop or mesquite pods. She even likes that better than yummies.  Now, I know that we are not supposed to chase her and pry the stolen object from her mouth – we are supposed to provide an alternative, wait for her to drop the stolen goods, and praise the daylight out of her – but since she also likes to chew, she is just as happy chewing the stolen item as she is chewing our approved alternative.  Her favorite things to steal are socks, slippers, shoes, blankets, dryer sheets, and towels.  Any laundry really will do.

(Side Note: One Sunday Godiva was a little tired or under the weather.  I had my laundry on a pile on the bed and was putting stuff away.  Godiva slowly climbed the stairs to the bed, walked over to the laundry pile, dug around, found a sock, and began very slowly pulling it out.  All the while she was looking at me like, “Daddy, look, I’m stealing your sock.  Please stop me, because I don’t have the energy to run around with it.  But if you are going to leave a pile of laundry within reach, I have to do what I have to do.”  She repeated this three times until I had everything put away.)

So, it was with great trepidation that Couper/Godiva’s Mommy and I brought out the Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving.  We have had our bouts with Couper and Christmas decorations in the past.  We have two footless gingerbread men ornaments to remind us.  With Godiva’s energy and passion for mischief, we were sure that we would be rescuing her from under a fallen tree at some point.

Since penning Godiva in the kitchen for the month of December was not an option, though it was discussed, we had to have a plan.  We decided to spray her with the water bottle if she even went near the tree.  That seemed to work.  She is at the point now that whenever she wanders that way, a stern, “Godiva! No!”, causes her to scurry away.  So far we have no ornaments lost and the tree skirt is right where it is supposed to be.

We were less attentive to other Christmas items, and Godiva has taken full advantage.  We have a tall thin glass table that backs up to one of our sofas.  During the year, we have a few picture frames on it (yes, with pictures in them, possibly of people we know or relatives, not just the picture included with the frame – I don’t really know).  Since this faces out to our front door, it is a great place to put Christmas decorations.  Couper/Godiva’s Mommy put a set of eight hand-sized stuffed bears on the table sitting against the back of the sofa.  Seemed like a good place for them.  Godiva sure liked it.  Anytime she got more than three seconds unattended in the living room, she jumped on the sofa, stood on her hind legs to peer over the sofa, picked out a bear (any bear is fine with her), jumped down off the sofa, and was off to the races.  One day, knowing that she was going to attempt this upon letting her out to the living room, I stood in front of the table, looking stern, arms crossed, as a deterrent.  She hopped up in front of me and grabbed a bear before I could say anything.  She is that quick (and/or I am that slow).  And stealing is only half the fun.  Catching her is a challenge if Couper/Godiva’s Mommy and I can double team her, and almost impossible alone.  I try to recruit Couper, but unless she has stolen one of his toys, he isn’t interested.

And the bears are only part of it.  She takes stuff from the coffee table and will hop up on any chair if there is something worth taking.  We have a cabinet a few feet behind our other sofa, where we have many other decorations and stuffed animals. Godiva climbs to the back of that sofa and stretches as far off the back as she can as she plots how she can make the three foot jump to get to those treasures.  Thankfully, she has yet to figure out how to do that.  December is less than half over though.

So after a few weeks, we gave up and moved the bears to higher ground (the table she was plotting leaping onto – maybe not our best idea, she had the taste of bear and wanted more).  We also made sure to have our spray bottle handy to try to deter any other mischief. 

It took us until right before Christmas to brave putting presents under the tree (procrastination in shopping and wrapping helped as well).  Gift bag tissues would be enough to make Godiva forget all about little stuffed bears.  She never really got the chance.  At that point, we were able to keep her penned in the kitchen or heavily guarded near the living room.  Couper blew his one chance for freedom when he ripped apart gift bag tissue when left alone – the penalty: three days of close company with his little sister.

December is almost over now, and we will soon be putting away the decorations.  For the puppies, it can’t happen soon enough.  They will finally get another 11 months of freedom.  Godiva will have to settle for stealing socks instead of bears.

Belated Merry Christmas from the Poop!