Must Be Santa Paws

Christmas Time makes us want to wag, so we made a video where Tootsie and her buddies listen to Dachshund Daddy's very special rendition of Must Be Santa.

Bryan Adams recently released a very special video for his own version of Must Be Santa and asked his fans to come up with their own version. We hope he likes Tootsie's very special version!

Black Friday Plans and a Limerick from Grandpa!

I hope my USA friends, and those celebrating abroad, had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We send love from our house to your house!

Here is a Black Friday limerick that Grandpa wrote:

If “Black Friday” is seen as obscene

By those of more halowt’ed ween

Could we soften it up

With a much lighter touch

For those with more limited means?

And here are my Black Friday plans--a nap with my pull tab out:

Love and all things fur,
Tootsie

Hello Peaches!

Like my dad, I'm a huge Bryan Adams fan. Bryan is coming to Switzerland in December for his Shine A Light tour and we can't wait! In addition to being a fabulous musician, Bryan is also an advocate for the ethical treatment of animals and a great dog dad. At the end of October, Bryan posted a photo of his fur-kid Peaches to his Instagram account. I'm taking the liberty to post the picture here on my blog so you can all say hi to Peaches! Look how happy he is with his dad. What a sweetie!

Stable is the Name of the Day

Hi, Friends!

Just a little note to wish you a happy end of September and to let you know I'm stable. I'm still eating tiny meals multiple times a day, but my tummy problems seemed to have settled down. Paws crossed!

Meet my new friend, Brad the Crab.

Thank you, again, for all your wonderful wishes. It's so good to have fur friends.

Xo
Tootsie

Napping with Lili's Arosa Coat

Healing is my top priority this week, which is why I'm taking a lot of naps. I'm taking one right now with my special Arosa coat on.

My Arosa coat was a gift from my special friend Lili. Here's Lili, Mom, and I on a forest road near her Arosa home.

Thanks so much to all my fur-friends who left sweet messages on my posts earlier this week!

When in doubt, a nap is the way to go. There's no such thing as a bad nap.

Back home!

Dear Souls and Kindred Spirits:

Thanks so much for your healing thoughts. I was discharged this afternoon, and I'm now back home.

My special vet, Dr. Pozzi, was really impressed with how much my health improved overnight.

Every extra day is an extra blessing, but today I feel more blessed than usual.

Thanks again for sending lots of healing juju my way. Your power of the paw is pawesome!

Yours,
Tootsie

Power of the Paw

Mid-August 2019: Tootsie and her mom visit Upper Grüenseeli (German for little green lake) near Arosa, Switzerland.

Dear Souls and Kindred Spirits,

Being a senior dachshund poses formidable challenges. In October 2017, I had my first major health crisis due to old age. Liver failure. Mom thought I was going to die in the car en route to the vet. Instead, under Dr Pozzi's special care at Centro Veterinario Scairolo, I made it through my illness and came home a few days later with a new lease on life.

After some relatively minor health issues in December 2017, I enjoyed a very healthy 2018 and an excellent start to 2019.

I had some freaky problems with my tummy at the end of April and, again, in early July. On July 1st I officially turned 14, but I'm probably older than that. July 1st is my Gotcha Day, not my date of birth, which we'll never know. Anyway, in July I also started having trouble sleeping at night.

This past summer, I was lucky enough to spend four amazing weeks in Arosa, in the middle of the Swiss Alps. I enjoyed the cool mountain air, made a lot of fur-friends, and started acting like a puppy all over again, though my night-time issues never went away.

We came home a week ago, and my night woes continued, but everything seemed fine, given my age.
Until yesterday, when my tummy problems came back with a vengeance. I'm now back at Centro Veterinario Scairolo, fighting a bad episode of gastroenteritis under Dr. Pozzi's care.

As of yesterday, I've blessed my forever parents with 8 years and 2 months of unrestrained dachshund love. Now, every extra day is an extra blessing.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Yours,
Tootsie Aelggi D'Aoust

Hi fur-friends. I love you!

Publication!

We have a new and very brief essay called "Paw to the Paw to the Paw to the Paw" published at a wonderful literary journal called BIG OTHER, edited by John Madera. We're grateful John accepted this piece for publication.

Thank you so much for clicking over and reading it: here.

We'd love to know what our dog & cat & animal friends & human friends think of this piece. Thank you! And now: we nap.

Hike 10 of 2019

Termine, Switzerland: We tested our agility skills on the percorso vita! 🐾🐶🐾

Hike 9 of 2019

Smack on the Swiss-Italian border near Cremenaga, Switzerland! 🐾🐶🐾

And Tootsie actually took a nap in my arms during our walkies!

Paws & Books: Katherine Riegel's LETTERS TO COLIN FIRTH

We love Katherine Riegel's LETTERS TO COLIN FIRTH. It won the 2015 Sundress Publications Chapbook Competition! I'm currently taking a writing course from Katie Riegel online, and it is fabulous; you can find more information here. 

💜📚✏️🐾🐾

Hike 8 of 2019

Hike to the Bolle di Magadino in Switzerland. 🐾🐾 This is a wetland area at the mouth of the Ticino River, across the north end of Lake Maggiore. Dog met: A four-month old puppy Chihuahua named Lina and two Border Collies. (We cannot remember their names!) 🐶☀️

And we saw this pawsome doggy DACHSHUND sign!

Tootsie and Ibex

Hike 7 of 2019

This is another hike we do a lot during the winter. It's near Sessa, Switzerland and also an extension of Hike 3. Dog met: Pinko, a four-year-old standard dachshund who is afraid of cats. His mom thought Pinko thought Tootsie might be a cat, but eventually Pinko sniffed Tootsie's butt and all was well with the world. 🐾🐶🐾

Here's what the humans ate after the hike. Tootsie got a carrot biscuit treat made especially for dogs.

Hike 6 of 2019

This trail goes to the Sessa Gold Mine, which operated until 1952. (It's now a museum.) Note that these kinds of vineyards are common in Ticino, Switzerland, terraced and tidy. (Merlot is common here, but we don't partake.) Dogs met: a fine medium-sized lab mutt guarding her home with barks and wags; she didn't tell us her name.

Can you find Tootsie? She's inside her "Take-a-Long Bag" from Dachshund Delights!
🐾🐾🐶💛

To Burrow or Not To Burrow Is Never the Question

Hike 5 of 2019

This is one of our favorite walks (or hikes, depending on length) along Lake Lugano.

The photograph demonstrates our best Swiss doggy manners. We love all the dog signage in Switzerland that speaks directly to doggies. The poopy trash cans are pretty spectacular too. (On the side is a dispenser for poopy bags. Scoop the poop!)

We always make time to cuddle on our hikes.

And these are some human treats--not for Tootsie. (Dachshund Grandpa, check these out!)

Paws & Books: Deborah Poe's KEEP

KEEP is a beautiful new poetry book by Deborah Poe--published by Dusie Press and available here.

"there is a reason to resist home / over and over windows burst wide open"--Poe

Last year, I interviewed Deborah Poe for Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies. That interview can be read, here.

Tootsie's Bug Bowl

We call this Tootsie's Bug Bowl, because her friend Bug gave it to her. Bug is the fur kid of our special USA-based vet Dr. Ward--she helped us adopt Tootsie. Tootsie lived with Dr. Ward for a time to lose weight (Tootsie used to weigh more than twice her current size), and Dr. Ward did all Tootsie's initial surgeries (rotten teeth pulled and bladder stones, for example).

[Today is supposed to be "Wordless Wednesday," but we always seem to break and bend the rules!]

Hike 4 of 2019

Hike 4 of 2019: Monte Clivio, Italy.

This is a super-interesting hike, because the whole trail is in Switzerland except for a tiny jaunt to the summit in Italy. There used to be a border fence with barbed wire on this trail between Switzerland and Italy. It was taken down. I would point out that in 2019 civilized countries do not need walls--nor do they build new ones.

 

Here's a photograph of the nap we took during the hike. 

I was so happy to be in the woods with Tootsie and Dachshund Daddy on a gorgeous Sunday, yesterday.

Saturday Plans!

Leaf Walkies!

The Pink Duvet: A Perfect Burrow

We Can Enter!

Dog Signage

Hike 3 of 2019

In the winter this is a hike we do a lot--it's in Suino, Switzerland--so I'll just count it once for our 2019 tally. Not shown to the right of the picture is a valley with several horses and the occasional Scottish cow.

Dog met: Maggie, an eleven-year-old yellow lab who was hoarse from barking so much.

Visual of what the humans ate afterward:

 

Can You Find Tootsie's Paw?

It's Monday and the start of a new semester... what can we say?

[This is our favorite DreamSack by Dachshund Delights. Best burrow ever.]

Dog Beach, San Vincenzo, Italy

Yes, it's actually called Dog Beach! It's our happy place. We've visited this beach near San Vincenzo, Italy twice, and I really hope we'll visit again.

Cousin Itt came with us to Dog Beach. Cousin Itt is a great traveler and loves to cuddle Tootsie.

Here's a photograph of me (Renée) wearing my gorgeous handspun, handknit Fair Isle tam made by Susan Blackwell Ramsey--a fabulous poet & artist. Ramsey's poetry collection is A Mind Like This (University of Nebraska Press, 2012).

If you're on Instagram, you can follow us here.

Squirrel Tail?

Hike 2 of 2019

Hike 2 of 2019: Monte Carmo, Liguria. We had a gorgeous view of the Appenines. Dogs met: none, but we saw the turf damage from lots of wild piggy snout action along the trail.

What the humans ate afterward:

 

Hike 1 of 2019

We have been super inspired by our new friends @fridalou84 (and Baxter, too) who completed the 2018 52 Hike Challenge, so we decided to keep better track of our hikes this year. Tootsie is 13 and as a senior doggy, it's a bit much to set big goals (and, geez, at her age, does she really have to feel the tyranny of New Year's resolutions?); however, since we hike all the time, we will continue to share where we go in 2019. I'm sure Tube of Fur will get carried a lot! I think one parameter of these hikes is that Tube of Fur has to come along and the hike should be a minimum of three miles.

Here is hike #1 of 2019: Passo Gandiolo, Liguria, Italy (in the hills above Genova).

🐾 Dogs met: Bilbo (yes, Baggins is his last name) & Lulu.

There was a fascinating man-made earth structure called a neviera, which was a pit dug into the ground and when it filled with snow, it was used as a freezer. Now it basically looks like a bulldozer took a chunk out of the ground, but the edges of the hole are smooth, and as the picture shows, it used to have a little freezer house on top.