Scary Day and Defending our Homeland

Sammy here.

First I want to post a picture of me from this morning looking very happy (sort of) and healthy. Soon you'll know why I wanted to start with this picture.



If you read my last post, you know that I went to the vet on Thursday. I got my shots and one of them was a Lepto shot. Lepto is a very bad disease that destroys the kidneys, and animals in the country are more likely to be exposed to it. The vet talked to Mom about the shot because small animals sometimes have a reaction to it. Mom decided the danger of the disease was worse than the danger of a reaction ... especially since the reaction can be treated. Anyway ... yesterday early morning I was sick. And then I had my tail down between my legs. And I wouldn't jump up for Mom to pick me up. I did eat my breakfast because very little takes me off of my food. And I wasn't barking at every single noise or thing that moved. Mom was worried because she knows how I usually act and this was not it.

Mom called the vet and they told her to bring me in and they would look at me. Of course, as soon as we got to the vet, I couldn't show any weakness or vulnerability so they couldn't find anything wrong with me. I didn't have a fever or any swelling so they decided I was having a low grade reaction like humans have when they get a flu shot. Mom brought me home and kept me close all day. This morning I am back to barking at every single noise or thing that moves. My tail is up and I am jumping up on Mom.

Mom was going to blog about it yesterday so you could send your prayers but she was too worried about me to take the time to put an entry together. We hope you understand and don't feel left out.

Now for earlier in the week. The cowdogs tried to invade!




And we went into our defensive mode.





As you can see, it was touch and go for a while before they moo-ved away.

Best Laid Plans Often Go Awry ....

Hello all! This is Mom. We all went back to Houston this weekend to let me train the new person for my old job. We also wanted to wish my parents, the dachsies' Grandma and Grandpaw, happy 57th anniversary! It was today and we were glad we could be there with them.

We headed home about 6:00 and got here about 7:30. As I was driving, I was thinking I should feed the dachsies when we get home. I'd unload the car first. Then feed them. Then get online, post some pictures and make an entry so you all know that Roxie is home and doing well and, except for three (yes, she got bit twice) fang marks on her pretty muzzle, she is back to her old self. Then I would read Mona's blog and call her mom.

It was a wonderful plan.

It didn't happen that way.

As I said, we got home about 7:30. I know the dachsies were tired of being cooped up in their crates after 90 minutes of driving, so I put them in the yard to run around while I unloaded the car. I had made one (just ONE) trip when I heard the dreaded "we have found something" bark. I threw the next batch of things to carry into the car and, since the dogs were on the other side of the house, I stopped long enough to get the shotgun and shells before I went around back and found them all facing the same direction in the same area where Roxie got her copperhead bites last Wednesday. I yelled for them to get away and they did. As they passed me, I saw that Andy had a bloody spot on his nose. I would like to tell you that I thought "Oh no, not again?" but my reaction was a little stronger and probably not something my mother would be proud to hear me say ... Anyway, yes, the copperhead was back, Andy was bit and I was armed this time. I blew that sucker away. He won't be biting any person or dog ever again. One shot; one dead or dieing snake. Just call me "Dead-eye". I have not a shred of remorse. I called my dad and asked about the best way to transport an almost dead copperhead (carefully and locked up) to the vet. I called Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital (more on this later) and took Andy in. You know all that money I've made helping my old company? Guess who has it now!

You know you have been to the ER too many times when you identify yourself and can say the dog that wasn't bitten before got bitten tonight and the person who answers the phone says "Oh, no, Andy got bit?" They had the paperwork ready for me to sign when I got there. Poor Andy, he wasn't feeling good at all but he is in good hands. Sammy did this in May and Roxie did this on Wednesday. They both got through it and Sammy's scars have even healed up. The whole crew recognizes me now. Soon I should qualify for volume discounts.

Oh, and yes, it was a copperhead and it was dead. I had transported it in a locked cooler and, when they brought the cooler back to me, they said the folks in the back were admiring my efficiency. I guess they won't come to visit unexpectedly.

I will try to post some pictures that I took of Roxie when she got home and was still swollen. I'll take some pictures of Andy too. I don't feel like posting pictures tonight. I hope you'll forgive me.

Oops, we did it again ....

Hello all! Andy here. I just put Mom to bed. She has had an eventful day.

But first, I want to thank everydog, cat and person for remembering my adoption day. You know how to make a day really special. And thank you for remembering Sammy's adoption day. Mom feels bad about not making a special entry for him. It's been four years since he was adopted and he thought Mom should have made a little more effort to tell everydog. Oh well, at least our friends remembered! Mom says she does have an excuse ... she was working for her old company. They contracted her to come in and take care of things that haven't been looked at since she left four months ago. Now she can buy us some really nice dog biscuits. She said she bought us tires for the dachsie-mobile.

Hey that reminds us, we saw the Oscar Mayer wiener mobile. It would have been a little more exciting if it hadn't been on the flat bed of a tow truck. But, hey, how many of you can say you have actually seen the wiener mobile? Thought so!



Oh yeah, we were discussing how to spend the extra money that Mom made ... well,tonight Roxie probably arranged for Mom to spend the rest of it. We found another copperhead snake. Yes, we got too close. And yes, it bit Roxie in the muzzle. And yes, Roxie didn't feel good so Mom packed all of us up and took us to the same Texas A&M Small Animal Emergency Room that Sammy and Roxie went to last time. Roxie has to spend the night. Sammy, who got bit in the lip, didn't even act like it bothered him but they gave Mom some antibiotics for him. I, of course, was smart enough to stay back and bark. That's twice they have been bitten and there ain't no bites on me! (I wanted to add a picture of a copperhead snake here but I decided Mom had seen enough snakes for this week.)

Anyway, like I said, Mom is tired after an eventful day. She got home and was here about an hour before she bundled all of us off to the ER. Last time, Mom and Grandpaw took Sammy and then Grandma called and said Roxie was swelling up. Mom didn't have anyone at home to watch us so we all had to go with her. We want to say that ALL vets offices smell the same and it is not a good smell!

Don't worry about Roxie. They said she is doing fine and one of the vet students already thinks she is pretty and sweet. Mom will probably bring her back home tomorrow.

Boy! We really like living in the country! There are so many things to bark at and to do. Getting bitten by a snake is kind of low on the "things to do" list but sometimes a dog has to do what a dog has to do.

I'm dog tired too. I think I'll call it a night and make sure Mom is sleeping soundly. Hopefully, Mom will let you know what is going on. She has been really lax about keeping up with our blog or reading anyone else's blog. To all of our friends, we still love you. We will get back into regular blogging soon ... we hope.

Hunting and Healing

It has been absolutely beautiful the last few days. It has been a little windy but other than that the sun has been shining and we have been sniffing around. We were in the back yard and checked out some of the logs laying around.



Mom was brave and didn't chase us away from the logs. She thought about it but figured if a snake was there, he would have a chance to get away from us.

We moved on to another part of the yard.



But Andy got a little side-tracked. We weren't sure what he found to sniff but ...



before you knew it, he was roaching! Doesn't that look like a fun thing to do on a sun-shiny day?



Sammy thought it looked so good he joined in!



And he roached some more!



Roxie didn't roach because she is so delicate. Maybe one of these days Mom can catch Roxie enjoying a good roll in the grass!

Hey, do you remember how Sammy looked right after the snake bit him? You can really see the bite next to his right eye.



Well, this is how he looks now! He still needs to heal a little bit more but he sure looks a lot better!



It's a lot easier to heal when you have friends sending prayers and good thoughts and "Sibe Vibes"! As you can tell, we are back to enjoying the good life!

Battle Scars

Hello friends! Roxie here.

We understand that Mom was kind of stressed out on Monday night when she wrote about our little escapade. We don't know what the big deal was about. We were gonna kill that snake. He had used up his venom and we were still circling. You would have been proud of the organized attack that we were launching. There were three of us and that stupid snake could only face one of us at a time ... and we are fast! Okay, maybe not quite fast enough or we wouldn't have gotten bitten. But, hey, now we have honorable battle scars!

Here's a picture of my battle scar ...



Hmmm ... not much evidence left on my face. If you look real close, you can sort of see a bump on the right side of my muzzle.

Here's Sammy's picture. You can still see where he got bit close to his left eye.



The doggie doctor was worried the snake might have damaged Sammy's eye but the test showed that the cornea was intact. Mom is worried that he may end up losing some of the skin around his eye since the venom didn't have a lot of skin to go into so it probably saturated that area. The doggie doctor said it could happen but he used some fancy word ... necrosis. We guess we just need to wait and see.

Mom gives us our medicine twice a day. She is really tricky because she wraps each of the pills in its own clump of canned dog food. That food is so yummy, we just HAVE to eat it - which is a good thing because we probably need the medicine to get all better and we sure wouldn't take it plain!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know we are almost back to normal. We can't thank you enough for all of your support. Mom was really scared and you helped her feel better. That and us coming home!

Roxie and Sammy's P-update

Hello everydog! Andy here. As you know we had some excitement here last night! We cornered a snake and we were going to kill it but Mom made us stop and let Grandpaw kill it. It was a mean snake 'cause it bit Sammy and Roxie. Mom and Grandpaw took Sammy and Roxie somewhere and didn't bring them back. I was really worried because I knew they were hurting from the bite that the nasty snake did. I slept with Mom last night so she wouldn't worry so much about them.

Mom said the doctor's office called this morning and said Sammy and Roxie did just fine through the night and both of them ate, drank, peed and pooped this morning. Since they were doing so well, the doctor said Mom could pick them up in the evening.

Mom finally got home around 7:00 tonight and she had Roxie and Sammy with her! I was so happy to see my brother and sister! Roxie's face wasn't so swollen anymore but Sammy still has some swelling above his left eye where the snake bit him. Roxie got bit in her right cheek so her face was really swollen yesterday. They both still have a lot of swelling in their throats ... probably because their lymph glands are pulling all of the bad stuff out of their systems. They sure are sleeping a lot too. Mom says they are pumped full of pain killers and the doctor gave her pills to give them to keep the pain at bay. They also have some pills to keep the swelling down and some other pills to make sure they don't get an infection where the snake bit them.

I want to thank all of you for your good vibes and best wishes. I know that Sammy and Roxie are feeling so much better because of your efforts. And I know Mom feels better too.

I will let you know how things progress!

Roxie and Sammy Need Your Prayers

Hello all. This is Mary ... or Mom as the dachsies call me. I know we haven't blogged in quite a while. Between the new job, sharing a house with a 20-something boy who loves my Internet connection (so he uses it) and getting used to a laptop, it just seems easier to do something else. But tonight I need you guys. Around 8:45 this evening, the dachsies were circling something so I went to investigate and found a very angry snake! Fortunately (since the 20-something boy has gone home for the summer) my parents were here and Dad killed the snake. We watched the dogs and Sammy's face started to swell. We rushed him to the Texas A&M University Small Animal Clinic Emergency Room. (For those who don't know, A&M has a highly respected veterinary school.) While my dad and I were there with Sammy, my mom called to say Roxie's face was swelling. So we rushed back to the house and made another trip to the ER. Roxie and Sammy are staying overnight for observation. We took the (dead) snake with us and it was a copperhead. While not the most poisonous snake, it is a viper and it's venom can kill. Anyway, please take a moment to say a short prayer for Roxie and Sammy to get through this crisis. It's 1:04 AM right now and I still don't know if I'll be able to sleep. I feel better knowing they are in good hands and our friends are wishing them well.

I'll keep you posted. Thank you to all of you.

Roxie's Healthy!!

Hello everydog! We wanted to let you know that Roxie's x-rays came out all clear with no sign of crystals! Yippee! We know Mom was worried that Roxie might need surgery if they weren't gone but now Roxie just needs a special diet to keep them from coming back. Mom grumbled something about having three dogs and they each have a different diet. She must love us a lot to keep so many different things around for us to eat.

We did go to our city house yesterday. We stopped and visited Grandma and Grandpaw and Aunt Lexie (the dachsie). Grandpaw is rebuilding the fence so we had to be on our leashes when we were in the back yard. That was okay but, when we were in the house, a pesky chihuahua came over and laughed at us through the door. He was right on the porch. Mom finally couldn't stand the barking anymore so she put our leashes on us and we all went into the back yard to have a chat with the chihuahua but he ran away. We looked around the corner and he was standing over there so we wanted to go see him and ... Roxie slipped out of her harness! Mom had to yell for Grandma to come hold our leashes so she could get Roxie. Fortunately, Roxie didn't want to run away and ran back into the yard and into the house. What a waste of an opportunity.

This morning we were in our back yard and Mom got a telephone call from some lady on the next street. It seems Sammy found the hole in the fence and moved all of the boards blocking it and he went for another adventure. Mom felt pretty bad that she hadn't noticed he was missing. While Mom went to pick up Sammy, Grandpaw came over and put nails in the boards so we can't move them anymore. Mom doesn't even feel guilty about taking away our fun!

Mom did let us have some of our homemade Frosty Paws! Yummy! These are peanut butter and banana flavored. She says the next batch will probably be chicken flavored. We should really, really like those!

We are back in the country now and it's a good thing. While we were gone, the cowdogs got really close to the house. We stood outside barking at them to let them know we were back and we aren't putting up with any nonsense from some cowdogs! They tried to argue with us but they speak some silly Moo language. They need to learn to bark if they want to talk to us!

Well, we need to go see what else is happening. Mom fed us and now we want to see if she tries to eat. We like to watch her very closely when she eats just in case she gets messy and drops something.

Progress!

Today Mom designed and started printing our cards! Woohoo! We like the way they came out. We would have really liked for them to have been mailed two weeks ago and all of our friends to have them already but we can't have everything. Mom has been printing up a storm. She has the fronts of 20 of the cards printed and the insides of ... 2. We gave one to Grandma and Grandpa because they are special and we love them ... and Mom needed to know if the cards looked okay. We hope Grandma and Grandpa were honest about what they thought because we want Mom to spend time printing up the rest of them.

Sammy went to the vet today to have his side looked at. He got to see Dr. Wagner today. She took a scraping of it and said it didn't have any mites or fungus. She also said Sammy didn't act like it bothered him to have the area manipulated. He has some antibiotics and some kind of spray that is good for abrasions. He gets the spray for 5 days and the antibiotics for 10 days. We hope his hair grows back soon because he is Mom's handsome boy.

Mom and Sammy went to see Grandma and Grandpa even before Mom finished the Christmas card. Mom said Sammy needed a reward for being such a good boy at the vet. Unless Mom takes all three of us to the vet at the same time, she usually takes us to see Grandma and Grandpa or we get to go to PetsMart. This time Roxie and Andy had to stay home. Sammy sure was lucky. He got to explore Grandpa's back yard. There are all kinds of different smells in their back yard! And you can usually look cute and get a treat at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

But Sammy has to be careful about treats. He weighed 16.8 pounds! Last time he weighed 16.4 pounds. Dr. Wagner says he should weigh 16 pounds. Poor Sammy, those spoons of cottage cheese and canned dog food are going to get smaller. It's not fun being a little dog. The food portions are just too small!

Well, we need to get to bed so we can get up early tomorrow and print more cards! We hope our friends forgive us for being so terribly late. Just remember ... we are cute!

Middle Name Game: Sammy

Sammy here. It is my turn to play the middle name game!

But first, here are the rules,

1. Post the rules before you give the facts.

2. List one fact that is somehow relevant to you and your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your post using your middle name and facts about it.

4. At the end of your post choose one dog to tag for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to let each puppy know she/he has been tagged.

Hmm ... I don't have a middle name either. Maybe we need to talk to Mom about being so lazy and only giving us one name ... But, like Roxie, she does call me a few different names. She calls me Sammy, Samwell, Sammers, Samwell Barkameous, and Big Boy. Since Barkameous sounds like a middle name, I'm going to use it.

B - Brave (You thought is was going to be something about barking, didn't you? That's okay because I do bark a lot but mostly I am brave.)

A - Always hungry (If you opened a 20 pound bad of dog food and left it with me, I would try to eat the whole thing. Okay, I don't know that for sure because Mom has never tried it but I'm willing to experiment!)

R - Red Bear (Red Bear was my favorite toy for a long, long time until he lost all of his stuffing. I still have a red bear but now he is green but I love him just the same.)

K - Kind (Sometimes I am not kind but I clean Roxie's and Andy's ears for them all of the time. That's a very kind thing to do.)

A - Alert (I notice any sound and sound the alarm! Nothing is going to get to my mom if I can help it.)

M - Marvelous color (Mom says it was my coat color that attracted her to me. I love that color because it found me a wonderful home!)

E - Energetic (I can run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and ...)

O - Outgoing (Mom says it's just too bad I'm not always outside when I'm going ...)

U - UP! UP! Pick me up! (I love for Mom to pick me up and hug me. Of course, then I want down so I can run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run and ...)

S - Sammy (Me, my name, Mom says it's the perfect name for me.)

I hope you enjoyed my middle name game. Andy will be here tomorrow to do his. He doesn't have a middle name either but Mom always calls him Andy Roo so we know he is going to use Roo.

Name Game: Sammy

Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions. They must be real places, names, things ... If you can't think of anything, skip it. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. You take the first letter of your first name, and then answer the questions using only that letter.

What is your name? Sammy
4 letter word: Song
Vehicle: Snowmobile
TV Show: Star Trek
City: San Antonio, TX
Boy Name: Scott
Girl Name: Susan
Alcoholic Drink: Samuel Adams (Lager)
Occupation: Seamstress
Something you wear: Socks
Celebrity: Sean Astin
Food: Steak
Something found in a bathroom: Soap (not my first thought)
Reason for being late: Slept in/slept late
Cartoon Character: Superman
Something You Shout: Stop!

Awards and Smiles

This is our Rockin' Guy Blogger Award we got from Dusty Doodles ... too bad Roxie, you aren't a guy!! Thank you, Dusty Doodles!!

Jake of the Barkzalot Boys wants us to show our smiles.

Andy!



Sammy!



Roxie (as a puppy) not smiling

Sammy's Adoption Day

Hello, All!

Today is the third anniversary of my adoption day. It was a long, long road to get to my mom. I belonged to someone who got rid of me. I was with Dachshund Rescue of Houston. I was adopted and returned to DRoH. I was adopted again and returned to DRoH again. I was adopted by Mom. I was very nervous at the beginning. I still get nervous when I get into the car. I'm afraid Mom will return me and I love it here with her and Roxie and Andy. I love it when Jake and Maggie come over to visit and play. I love to go visit Grandpa and Grandma. I get very sad and worried when I think about it. Mom keeps telling me I don't have anything to worry about. She is keeping me forever because she loves me so much. I thought the other people loved me too but I was wrong.

I don't know what kind of presents I might get. Mom likes to give me extra cottage cheese because I enjoy it so much. I really don't need anything as long as I have my mom and Roxie and Andy and Jake and Maggie and Grandpa and Grandma and my aunts and uncles and food.

I also have lots of DWB friends. My life is better than I ever thought it could be. I am the luckiest dog it the whole world!!

(I reset the date so everyone who is already in July 3, can come by and leave comments.)

Rain: Part 3,670,984

For those of you in the USA, you probably know it has been raining in Texas for about a month. We think it rained every day in June. It has been raining in Oklahoma and Kansas too. Army of Four has mentioned the rain in Kansas. The Brat Pack has mentioned the rain north of us in Dallas (Texas) We have mentioned it more than once. It just keeps falling. We are tired of rain. Mom is tired of rain. We think the weatherman is tired of rain! We thought about sending it to Charlie Kelly-Church and family but they have enough going on now without us dumping rain on them. Anyway, it is hard to come up with anything to say if we are stuck in the house most of the time.

Okay, one thing did happen. Sammy found something really stinky to roll around in. After he got the aroma well distributed, he ran back in the house and jumped on Mom's lap. She was so happy she said "EEEEWWWWW, Sammy, you STINK!" He was trying to give her lots of kisses and she was trying to get him out of her lap. She finally got him off of her and you can probably guess what happened next. Yep, she gave him a bath. There is only one good thing about a bath ... hmmmm ... two good things. After the bath is over, Mom gives you a treat to reward you for being good. And she doesn't put your collar and tags back on you until you are dry. She says you are a "stealth puppy" until you get your tags back. Being stealthy is pretty cool because you can sneak up on her. Not cool enough to WANT a bath but cool enough to make up for the indignity of the bath.

Well, like we said, not much is happening around here. We look outside and it is raining. We sleep on the sofa. We get up and look outside and it is raining. We sleep on the sofa. We get up and look outside and you can probably guess what is happening ... and the Weather Channel says it will be like this all of next week. We hope we can come up with something to write about instead of rain ...

The More the Merrier!

Hello All! We have a houseful this weekend. Aunt Bec went to see a friend who lives in Ohio and Mom is taking care of us and Maggie and Jake. It's almost as good as being at the country house but we miss Aunt Bec. Maggie really misses her mom as you can see here.



You can see Andy laying down behind her. We slept a lot today because it was raining and Mom wouldn't let us run in and out all day long. Sammy found a comfortable place to sleep.



Roxie found a comfy place too but she wanted Mom to leave her alone and put the camera away!



Jake just takes up position near the door hoping Mom will open it back up. Jake LOVES to be outside as much as possible!



But when it's mealtime, we all wake up.



Since it takes a little while to make five meals, the girls are smart enough to find the comfortable places to sit. Mom says it a little like an obstacle course in the kitchen!



But we did finally get our dinner!



And finally, Roxie wants you to see what a poor little girl she is ... doesn't this just pull at your heartstrings?

Patrolling the Yard and Find the Cowdog

Okay! now it's time to tell you some more about our trip!

Here is a picture of Roxie and our cousin Jake checking out the fence line.
You have to look for Jake but he is really there!



Andy was keeping an eye out for things happening on the other side of the fence!


Sammy was doing his part too! And Grandpa will be happy to see he wasn't in the flowerbeds!



And guess what we saw on the other side of the fence! There were cowdogs down by Grandpa's pond! See the black one on the right, she is in the next picture. Can you find her?




She's looking right at you!



We also got to see some pretty flowers. This is a morning glory.



The cowdogs have been multiplying! We will show you pictures of the the baby cowdogs next time!

Andy's Toy

We have gotten a couple of questions about the toy Andy is playing with in his "tummy tag" picture. We have been wanting to make a post about that toy so now is as good of a time as any! Maybe you remember in a previous post, Mom had called a toy a donkey but when she found the packaging, she realized it was a fox. Even then we told you Mom is pretty silly because a donkey does not look anything like a fox. Mom says her excuse was it was brown and had long legs. You tell us ...



Anyway, that lead to Mom always calling the toy Fox-that-is-not-a-donkey. She decided that was too much to say so she thought about F(ox-that-is-not-a-d)onkey and decided to call it Fonkey. (Control yourselves out there. She IS our Mom.)

Well, Andy loved to play with that toy but Sammy decided that Fonkey was his replacement for poor Red Bear who is still around but is only a shell of his former self. Since Sammy doesn't play with lots of toys, Mom usually lets him have one if he picks it out.

To make it up to Andy, Mom went to get another toy. She wanted to buy a Stinky but Petsmart only had the fox. (Here are the different ones in the series. This is just a site Mom found that shows all of the toys. It is not an endorsement for the site.) This is Foxy. He is the plush fox. You can tell because he has black legs.



So now we have Fonkey and Foxy and, guess what, Sammy wants them both. Mom spends most the time taking one away from Sammy and letting Andy have it. Roxie just ignores the whole process.



And, yes, Fonkey's face is a little chewed up. We have been working on him. He is already missing his squeakers.

Bluebonnets ... The State Flower of Texas

It is the end of bluebonnet season here. The bluebonnets bloom in early and mid-April but there were still a few blooms in the corner of the yard.



The boys weren't afraid to show that they have a softer side and can stop to smell the bluebonnets.

Jake:



Andy:





Sammy: