Back in my pet heyday, before I met Wessel, I was living (and of course sleeping) with three dachshunds and two cats. I am nuts for those wiener dogs, which we had when I was a kid. Well, Uncle died in 2005, at age 18, then my 14-year-old lovable Lucy died this past November. It was just Roxy and me. Roxy was thrilled to have me to herself, but I found myself one day looking at the website for Dachshund Rescue of North America.
I saw a dog that looked a lot like Lucy, a red-haired short hair with a graying muzzle. Well, I’ve always said about the wiener dogs: “you can’t have just one.” And so now there are two again: Roxy, 13, and Sabrina, 8. After a test weekend, Brina came to us for good on Leap Year Day. Well, first I had to pass a home inspection, fill out a lengthy questionnaire and have my wiener-dog references checked. Me! The Wiener Woman! [
] I mean I have an entire room devoted to the breed. But truly I was impressed by the seriousness of the adoption process.
Brina is a total sweetie, always smiling and wagging her tail. She
tries to engage Roxy in play, but Roxy isn’t that interested. Maybe one day. Brina ignored our cat, Q-Kitty, until the day I officially signed her adoption papers. Then she started to chase Q. Now Q chases Brina out in the yard, so it’s a fair deal. They clearly enjoy their little game.
But here’s the thing about Sabrina: she’s a porker. An overstuffed sausage. A block o’ dach. The adoption listing said she weighed about 11 pounds, which would be about right for her build. Well, she gained a bit of weight, like 7 pounds, between being saved from near death at a dog shelter in Jacksonville, Fla., to being loved to death by her rescuers in North Carolina. Let me say that the dachshund rescue volunteers here did wonderful things for her, caring for her and seeing her through spaying, tumor surgery and dental surgery. But I’m particularly obsessed with keeping my dogs’ weights down because of the breed’s propensity for back problems. So now, Sabrina is on a Big Fat Diet. We’ll chart her progress here: Greatest Loser, Wiener-Dog Style.
So welcome home, Sabrina! We promise to shower you with love, if not food!
Tags: dachshund, Dachshund Rescue League, Sabrina
Places we go, People we see 
March 14, 2008 at 11:42 am |
block o’dach? where do you think these up? I thought yarn harlot was bad…
March 14, 2008 at 11:49 am |
Thanks for noticing, Al! I have to say that that one was particularly inspired. It must be from all those years of writing headlines.
March 21, 2008 at 2:17 pm |
[…] might recall, we adopted a new/old wiener dog from Dachshund Rescue of North America. Her name is Sabrina, and our pal Kristin, aka Krispy, has come up with the wonderful nickname of Briner the Wiener, […]