Shoulder Walkies

A Poster for My Friend Bouncing Bertie

We see this sign on one of favorite walks along Lake Lugano in Switzerland.

It always makes us think of our friend Bouncing Bertie,

a wire-haired fox terrier who bounces.

Wag on over to visit Bouncing Bertie's blog.

Pick Up Your...

 

A loose translation:

Leash your doggy.

Pick up your doggy s**t.

A Note from Jasmine: Cat Guest Post

Today, I am sharing an email that I received from Jasmine.

My beautiful friend Jasmine.

Dear Tootsie,

 

I know you have worried about your mom’s coffee consumption, so I thought you might be interested in this article. Though it doesn’t justify unlimited amounts of the brew, and there are still some negative effects, it should make you feel a little more at ease when she imbibes.

 

I follow your life on your blog and find your travels and adventures quite interesting.  Being a cat, travel with humans is not too enticing, though I did recently make an outing to the vet for my annual checkup. This was followed by sitting in my travel carrier for hours while my parents ran innumerable errands.  I must admit, however, that the day was not as stressful as I had anticipated; I even enjoyed the ride just the tiniest bit (but don’t tell anyone!).

 

My parents look forward to seeing your parents again during your summer visit to Idaho.

 

Jasmine

P.s. Thank you for your return email. I enjoy corresponding with you, as  I do so miss the companionship of a dog. Tramp was my best friend for years. He shared everything with me. Other cats are so boring and just represent competition for the affection of my humans.

Thank you, Jasmine, for your letter!

I had planned to post another coffee concerns plea, because Mom has been drinking a lot of coffee of late, as she has done before, but I'll wait while I consider the article.

Here's some information from the article Jasmine attached to her email:

In the Weill Cornell Medical Center "Women's Nutrition Connection" Newsletter (Volume 12G),  Weill Cornell dietitian Carly Trueger, RD, says: "Research shows that coffee drinkers are healthier than people who don't drink coffee. However, it is difficult to determine, based on current research, if it's just the coffee that makes people healthier, since there are so many other dietary variables and other factors that cannot all be accounted for."

Still, Mom is ecstatic and plans to keep drinking coffee!

French Relatives

During our recent trip to Provence, I enjoyed a ten-plus mile hike in the Saint Tropez peninsula. We started at Gigaro, followed the coast to Cap Lardier and Cap Taillat, and hiked back to Gigaro across the hills.


Not only did I enjoy wotten waven ocean views, but I was also lucky enough to run into my long lost French relatives. Meet Jean-Michel and Jean-Maurice on their Sunday walk on a forest road near Col de Collebasse.


Here they're discussing how many generations we'd have to go back to find our most recent common ancestors. I apologize I didn't pose with them. I was too busy looking for their pee spots, so I could pee over them.




And just as we were thinking the day couldn't possibly get any more wotten waven, we also met Coccolin, Bouncing Bertie's French cousin!

Kisses for Free

I Believe I Can Fly

Tootsie visits the coastline in Provence.

Urovision Song Contest

I would like to thank all my friends who watched my live performance at this year's Urovision Song Contest, where dogs from all over (E)urope get to pee while singing. I chose to sing Dachshund Daddy's hit single "Be Like Yugi", which is why I had to pee like a boy.

Some of you also may have heard of a loosely related event called Eurovision Song Contest, the annual singing competition among representatives of European countries. Here are three fun facts about Eurovision that you may not have heard:

1. The very first edition of Eurovision was held right here in Lugano, Switzerland in 1956; it was also won by Switzerland.
2. The Swiss only managed to win a second time by hiring Céline Dion to sing their song in 1988.
3. The idea for a European singing contest was (of course) copied from Italy and her Sanremo Music Festival.

Walkies in Provence

Thoughts by Tootsie

HOUNDED by Matt Ziselman (Part II of II)

Get ready to wag with Matt Ziselman's HOUNDED: The Lowdown on Life from Three Dachshunds. Everyone is going to want to be best friends FURever with the three wiener stars of this memoir.

You'll fall in love with their dad Matt Ziselman's wonderful, self-deprecating humor. He's floored by self doubt, but he also has dreams. And who helps him learn how to live better and how to pursue those dreams?

 

The lowdown fur folk: Baxter, Maya, and Molly. Way to go, hot dogs!

Ziselman learns and shares a series of lessons from his dachshunds. He translates the wisdom of horizontal dogs into a life philosophy. For example, Maya seems to have had a troubled past. Ziselman writes:

Maya "will never ask to go outside. When it's time to take out all of the dogs, Maya needs to be carried to the foyer where she will then inexplicably walk through the front door to the grass. And, yes, that's the same front door that she will not walk through to enter the house." Yet, he continues: "[Maya] is the sweetest, the gentlest, and -- with the exception of having us convey her from room to door to grass and back again -- the least demanding dog in the world."

From Maya comes "Dachshund Life Lesson #10":

"Even with a messy past, the present can still be pretty neat."

Ziselman glories in the stubborn, loving natures of the long and short. Mom kept nodding and laughing in recognition at the quirks we hot dogs exhibit and the lessons we teach.

We especially love "Dachshund Life Lesson #19":

"All you need are one or two good friends. Any species will do."

For fur lovers, and all those involved in the down low, we highly recommend Hounded.

Please wag on over to author Matt Ziselman's webpage for links to purchase the book from local, independent booksellers or online retailers. (And take a look at the video book trailer, which is super cute.)

HOUNDED by Matt Ziselman (Part I of II)

Just released!

HOUNDED: The Lowdown on Life from Three Dachshunds

A Memoir by Matt Ziselman

Stay tuned for our upcoming book review of this wonderful memoir!

Kisses and Wags

Meet my fur-friend Steetch, the Swiss Border Collie whose wagging tail provides the soundtrack to this video!

I'm a Cuteness Specialist

For Goose's Mom, since she loves this photo.

Thank you, Goose and Goose's Mom!

They write the wonderful Gospel of Goose blog.

Love, Tootsie

Mother's Day

Dear Mum,

You are missed. Truly and deeply. You said I would carry on. You said I would be okay. Even though I feel so blessed to have you as my mom, I have found it hard to carry on. Even though I feel so lucky to have you as my mom, I have found it hard to be okay. Yet with Tootsie, slowly, it has become easier to carry on. It has become easier to be okay. You were right, after all, Mum: "It's a blip. The physical form is a blip."

Susan Saxton D'Aoust with Truffle and Daisy

I am not so selfish to wish you were still here in pain. I wish you were here, out of pain, full of spark, and with us. In truth, I do not know how to live without you, but I am trying very hard to learn.

I remember your words: "Relax, Sweetheart. Life is too hard to be so serious all the time."

How I wish you could meet our Tootsie. Here she is with me on top of Mount Sassalto. I'm wearing your pink hat. I took it from your drawer.

I love you, Mom.

Love always,
Renee

Swiss Dachshund Club Week: Part V

Swiss club member Dachshund Dino was recently voted "Sassiest Long-Haired Doxie" by Swiss female dachshunds.

Here's Dino sBARKling conversation with a firetruck dog:

I admire Dino's down low aplomb!

Swiss Dachshund Club Week: Part IV (Art by Manfredo Haeberli)

The Swiss Dachshund Club gathering featured dachshund art by Manfredo Haeberli. His fabulous paintings are all about the down low. The tableaux are available as original art, cards, postcards, small prints, puzzles, and lots more!

It was thanks to Manfredo (pictured here on the left) that we were able to join the Swiss Dachshund Club spring walk.

I have a question for Manfredo:

Please wag on over to www.comics-naifs.ch to enjoy Manfredo Haeberli's wonderful artwork. Tell him Tootsie sent you!

You'll notice all these words for the down low on his fun website: "dackel" (German) and "teckel" (French) and "bassotti" (Italian).

Si! Sono una bassottina!
Ciao, Tootsie

Swiss Dachshund Club Week: Part III

An Interloper! Can you spot the Interloper at the Swiss Dachshund Club walk?

In reality, all were welcome, but I like the way it seems like the Interloper broke the rules and crashed the party! What do you think Freddie Mercury, here in the front, thinks about this?

Swiss Dachshund Club Week: Part II

The meeting place for the 2013 spring walk of the Swiss Dachshund Club was the Betulle Restaurant in the town of Origlio. Origlio is not exactly a sprawling metropolis, but we managed to spend 15 minutes walking around town without finding the place until we finally decided to seek local knowledge.


Sir Galahad didn't know the location, but eventually, we heard the great rising choral barks of my fellow dachshunds and followed the sound.


We caught up with my relatives just as the spring walk was getting started.


The first part of the walk followed the western shore of Lake Origlio...


where a crew of Emergency Medical Technicians were practicing a lake rescue.

It didn't seem like the EMTs needed our help, so we kept on walking in spite of the constant rain and ensuing WBS (Wet Belly Syndrome) for everyone.


Thank you for the great comments and questions after yesterday's post! The Swiss Dachshund Club is inclusive, and I met several fellow rescue doxies.

The most common breed of doxie we see in Switzerland (and so far in Germany, Austria, France, and Italy) is the wirehair. The second most popular is the long hair. Black-and-tans, which you see all the time in the U.S.A., are much less common here. I'm a rescue star!

Stay tuned: Swiss Dachshund Club Week continues tomorrow.

Swiss Dachshund Club Week: Part I

I took part in the annual spring walk sponsored by the Swiss Dachshund Club and organized by our local Ticino/Graubünden chapter.

Can you imagine approximately 25 Swiss dachshund relatives all gathered in the same place for walkies?

Walkies are a great idea for family reunions, because it's a lot easier to have those awkward conversations with distant relatives while you're walking; you know what I mean, such as when Aunt Betty exclaims, "Just who is Francie the Piebald hump hugging now?"

I'm going to devote this week to my appreciation of the down low and their humans in the Swiss Confederation, so please stay tuned!

Smallest No-Dog Beach on Earth Near George Clooney's Villa

Nestled on the south-western shore of Lake Como, the town of Laglio is famous for being home to the planet's smallest no-dog beach. It is also known in the popular press as the location of George Clooney's lakeside mansion, Villa Oleandra.



"It is forbidden to access [the beach] with dogs," dictates the sign.

Why did the good folks of Laglio bother to spend the money for the sign, given that there's no room for us on the beach anyway?

Rumor has it that George Clooney is planning to sell his Lake Como villa. It's not because he's sick of the paparazzi, as the popular press claims; it's because he can't walk his dog on the beach.

Portrait by Aghi

Last summer, my mom commissioned my human cousin Aghi to draw my portrait. Thank you, Aghi!

And for my time, my mom's brother and his sons (my human uncle and cousins) gave me "Alaska Wild Things" salmon treats. These are total wotten waven! You can purchase treats for you and for your pets by clicking Wild Alaska Smoked Salmon for Humans and for Pets.

As a working Alaskan fishing family, during the summer, my human cousins fish with their dad in a safe southeastern Alaskan fishery. Mom says that her nephews, my human cousins, are two very lucky, very special boys to have such a neat Dad who is also a Captain. Their dad cares for them and teaches them skills and keeps them safe. The whole schnaa is wotten waven.

Here is Aghi's design for their Mojo Coho Wild Salmon fishing business:

Here is a photo of my human family fishing: my grandpa, my human cousins, and my uncle:

  

Send more salmon, please!

Tootsie and the Universe

I've been thinking about myself in relation to the universe. This is my conclusion.

Mayday, Mayday - Long Vehicle Ahead!

Check out the dachshund sign at the back of the tourist train in downtown Lugano!