Refresh, Renew, Restart: Happy New Year!

From all of us here at Tube of Fur headquarters, we wish you health, happiness, and oodles of love in 2015. Thank you for being our friends and readers. Thank you for spreading kindness in the world.

And when your human heart is fragile, you know what to do:

TOUCH FUR.

WALK WITH THE FOUR PAW.

BARK IT; WAG IT; BE IT.

Love to you & yours.
Tootsie & her humans

Holiday Treats? No!

Mom says I'm a highly sensitized tube of fur, and we always get into difficulties when we switch my food. So I enjoy the same kibble day in and day out, morning and evening. Still, I love it!

But I hope you mixed things up over the holidays and ate a bunch of things you didn't recognize. Mom sure did, in Italy. Her stomach is a mess, and she is going to tone everything down for a week, or more.

Special Remembrance: Sweet Sir Yugi

It's hard to believe that our friend Sweet Sir Yugi passed away one year ago. We're thinking of Yugi and his Mom and sending lots of love.

Here's an encore showing of Dachshund Daddy's movie, "Be Like Yugi."

And here's another, "Shakespeare in the Bark."

Yugi gave Tootsie a frisbee -- smaller, for her size. About a month ago, after not touching it for a very long time, Tootsie picked it up and started playing with it.

We miss you, Yugi.

Love,
Tootsie & her humans

Feliz Navidad

Dear fellow waggers, have a burrowrific Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Great 2015 Calendar Giveaway Winner!

Waggy tail, please! If you left a comment as part of our Great 2015 Calendar Giveaway, Mom wrote your name on a piece of paper, placed it in a hat, and let me pick the winner. (Sorry, there are no photos of the process, because Dachshund Daddy went on a solo hike today and took the camera.)

Cross your paws and hope that you won!

Here are a few of our entrants with links to their blogs:

The Hailey and Zaphod Chronicles (We love mountains, too.)

The Swiss Cats (They said they didn't need to enter since they knew the answer, but Tootsie insisted we enter you.)

Rottrover (We like the photographs, too.)

Casey @ The Legacy Chronicles (Thank you for the waggy tail.)

Monte Generoso is the mountain on the cover of my 2015 Swiss Alps Calendar. "Generoso" means "generous" in Italian.

Barks and congratulations to the winner of our calendar (with a link to her blog):

Amber DaWeenie (We agree - next year Dachshund Daddy should make a calendar of my cartoons.) Congratulations!

Barks and congratulations to our runner-up, who will receive one of my signature magnets (with a link to his blog):

Mr. Pip (We love that you were going to research.) Congratulations!

Please send an e-mail to Mom with your preferred snail mail address.
Mom's e-mail: idahobuzzy [at] yahoo [dot] com

Thank you, all. Keep on wagging!
Tootsie

P.s.: Mom said we should add a link to Tootsie's Shoppe (over at Zazzle).

Greatest Hits for the Holidays

With a SantaBear in Bozeman, Montana.

 

With holiday paraphenalia.

My holiday card available at my Bicontinental Dachshund Zazzle store, Tootsie's Shoppe.

The year Mom shoved my head through every wreath she could find in Switzerland.

It's an existential time of year.

Another wreath photo. Thanks, Mom.

Boxing Day. (And who is the bright person who included the bag of recycling there in the background? Tacky!)

My Italian greeting.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

Love from all of us,
Tootsie & her humans

P.s. We will post the winner of our great calendar giveaway on Tootsie Tuesday, tomorrow!

My 2015 Swiss Alps Calendar

Dear Fellow Waggers,

I'm proud to present my 2015 Swiss Alps Calendar!

I personally hand-picked the most wag-inducing photos out of Dachshund Daddy's Swiss alpine photos collection. I'm only featured in the photo at the back of the calendar so that I don't steal the scene(ry) with my extreme cuteness.

Each photo was taken by my father during one of our wotten waven hikes.

This way, we get to share a slice of Swiss alpine gorgeousity every month.

And now... time for our calendar giveaway!

The first fur-friend or human reader who guesses the exact location where the cover photo was taken will win a copy of my 2015 calendar.

As usual, there are no geographic limitations and anyone can enter. The question is hard or else anyone could Google the answer, but here's a precious hint: the name of the mountain has to do with giving things away.

Too hard? I'm not an unreasonable dachshund. If no one guesses correctly by Monday, December 22, we will select the winner randomly out of all the fur-friends who leave a comment below.

Did You Say Squirrel?

Guest Post: A Day in the Life of a Wire-Haired Dachshund in India

by Ms. Champi
(as told to Minal Hajratwala)

7:30AM – My cook arrives. Go to kitchen to supervise cooking of mutton, rice, daal, carrot.  Gaze up lovingly at her.

Note to self: Do not bite the hand that feeds me.  Even though it would taste so nice and muttony…

8:15AM – Nap #1 of 7.

9:00AM – Human awakes. Morning ablutions for all, followed by sunbathing.

9:45AM – Human leaves for work.  Exiled to sky terrace.  Paw at door in protest.

Note to self:  Consider going on hunger strike, à la Gandhi?

Note to self:  Scratch that.  Terrible idea.

10:00AM – Defend territory from birds, branches, strong gusts of winds, and occasional simians.

11:00AM – My maid arrives.  Supervise sweeping and dusting. Bark vehemently if she tries to steal my toys or chew-bone.

Note to self: Servants cannot be trusted. Vigilantia Aeterna! 

1:00PM – Nap #2 of 7, soon followed by Nap #3 of 7 and, shortly thereafter, Nap #4 of 7. 

Note to self: Speak to groundskeeper about installing deck chairs and personal paddle pool.

In between – Attempt to escape.  If successful, visit human's brother in 4th block.  En route, visit smoothie dachshund on floor below.   Sniff all over and mark territory.  This block belongs to me!

Note to self:  Ad victoriam! 

4:00PM – Evening duty.  Begin listening keenly for my human’s car. Run in circles. Stand at window and try to look out. Why is this window so high?  Why does it have curtains anyway???!#$

Note to self:  Prepare PowerPoint presentation for housing association Board about lowering all windows to dachshund height.

5:00PM – Greet human.  Begin daily exercise routine:

Lick human’s toes.

Run up and down whole length of flat. 

Run in circles.

Roll on tummy. 

Lick every available part of human.

Don’t forget stretching: downward dog and upward dog asanas.
Lick own toes.

WHEW!

Time for Nap #5 of 7.

6:00PM – Nudge human and look hungry.  Look at bowl; look at human.  Look at bowl; look at human.  Repeat as necessary. 

Supervise scooping of food into bowl.

Eat! Yummmmmmm!

Nap #6 of 7.

8:00PM – Human mealtime.  Sit near table.  Look hungry.  Gaze at human and practice mind-control techniques:   “Feed me…  Feed me…  Feed me…”  

If non-veg, stand on hind legs and cry. 

In extreme cases (KFC, mutton biryani), apply advanced barking techniques until human succumbs to mind control.

Note to self:  Yum!  Bones!  Crunchy!

9:00PM – Nap #7 of 7.

11:00PM – Evening ablutions.

11:30pm – Finally, after long hard day’s work, climb into bed and get some rest.  Supervise fluffing of pillows.  Drift off to dreamland.  Zzzzzzzz…! 

Note to self:  Adopting these humans was the best decision I ever made.

A special note:
Champi would love our readers to check out her mama's publishing collective. It's a wonderful campaign. Thank you so much for following the link to The Great Indian Poetry Collective.

All photos this page -- of fabulous Ms. Champi -- are by Lakshmi Shubha.

Do You Know Why I'm Laughing?

P.s. Dachshund Daddy doesn't like it that you cannot see the top of my peppa.

Mom thinks it looks super arty barky.

Dante Didn't Just Write.

He also made olive oil.

I Looked Out Upon the Water. And I Held a Little Dog.

Tootsie Tuesday: Advice

My special vet Dr. Ward says that instead I should say, "DREAM BIG. live long."
What do you think?

Immaculate Conception

Regional holidays differ around Switzerland, and as a predominantly Catholic area, the canton of Ticino (where we live) celebrates the Immaculate Conception. This is the day that the Blessed Mother Mary was conceived (not, as generally assumed, the day Jesus was immaculately conceived).

So it is not a Come-to-Jesus moment...

but a Mother Mary celebration!

Reflective Tootsie

W.O.O.P. Your Life!

Mom is super into this mind-thought program called "WOOP." 

WISH
OUTCOME
OBSTACLE
PLAN

We listened to an interview at WNYC online with researcher Gabriele Oettingen*, and we checked out the webpage WOOPMYLIFE. Here's a summary: "roadblocks can lead to success," and pawsitivity has its place, but may need to be reconsidered.

It's super usable... basically, you coach yourself (or I coach Mom). For example, here's my WOOP for today:
WISH: Walkies!
OUTCOME: Go on walkies.
OBSTACLE: I need a human to walk me on leash.
PLAN: Stand by the front door until human gets a clue.

IT WORKED!

Mom's WOOP is a little more complicated:
WISH: Be a dog.
OUTCOME: Become a dog.
OBSTACLE: Mom is human.
PLAN: No plan. Not possible. Mourn not being able to be a dog in this lifetime.

Okay, so it didn't work for that.

But it works for this, for Mom:
WISH: Meditate daily.
OUTCOME: A more regular meditation practice.
OBSTACLE: Life is a total distraction. Mom gets uncomfortable, stiff, and sore sitting still. Mom forgets to set her sights in a more reasonable fashion.
PLAN: Meditate 4x / week / for ten minutes each time.

IT WORKED! Mom and I have been meditating for two weeks now with the above plan. Super helpful. Thank you, WOOP!

* The interview was on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC -- "Optimism Can Make You Unhappy" -- here is that link.