Pet Blogger Challenge

Today, I'm sending a bark-out to the Pet Blogger Challenge with my wagging answers to their questions!

1. When did you begin your blog?
My blog debut was last September. I wrote "Flying to my Swiss Home" just after my first transatlantic trip.
2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
Not many miniature dachshunds get to live on both sides of the Atlantic pond. Living in northern Idaho and southern Switzerland gives me a unique canine perspective that I wanted to share. It's hard to blog without opposable thumbs, but my human mom is a writer, so Dad and I convinced her to start "Bicontinental Dachshund." We love contributing to the dogosphere.
3. Is your current purpose the same?
Yes. It's very much a family activity.
If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals? With "Bicontinental Dachshund," I inspire Mom to write often, which benefits her other ongoing writing projects.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you? Both!
If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it?
I generally post new material at least twice a week. My mom uses her pocket notebook to collect all our new ideas for posts. The next step is a ruff draft, followed by a painstaking editing and peer review process. For me, writing without revision or editing is like eating dry kibble without water. I prefer kibble with water.
If the latter, do you worry about… well, whatever you might worry about (e.g. losing traffic, losing momentum)?
I'm more concerned with the quality of my posts than I am with the frequency. I strive to provide quality content on a reasonably regular basis. But I like to be a reliable and regular source for canine reflections because I enjoy maintaining my connections with my fur and human friends.
5. Are you generating income from your blog?
Not enough to buy my Dr. Hill's Science Plan dog food!
If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)?
I use Google Adsense. I write a family-friendly blog where puppies are welcome, so I block sketchy ad categories.
If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?
I'd love to have sponsors, and I'm still figuring out how. Suggestions are most welcome!

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)? Wag: Blogging connects us with furkids and their humans all over the world. It's a sweet community. And since you ask, here's my dog-blog wag-brag: I am a punster and I love playing with language in our cartoons.
7. What do you like least?
My tail doesn't wag so much when I publish a really special post or cartoon, yet my readers don't respond to it. I know readers are busy, though, so I keep on wagging.
8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2012?
I will continue to blog about my broad interests: travel, hiking, art & literature, and current events, all viewed from my low and furry angle. I am currently planning a series of posts to document unique features of Switzerland and another series about common European misconceptions about America. I will continue to entertain my readers with my quirky cartoons and doggy comebacks. I am also planning more interviews with public figures to try and make sense of current events, and I will soon begin sharing my collection of doggy signage from Europe and America.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer your questions, and thank you for visiting my blog.
Wag it forward to the other blogs in the Pet Blogger Challenge 2012!
Love, Tootsie

My New Coat: A Long and Short Story

I am long and short, and I have smooth, beautiful black and tan fur. But sometimes I get cold on the top of Swiss mountains or when I'm pushing my way through Idaho snow, so Mom decided I needed a jacket. No member of Mom's fur family has ever needed a jacket before.

Our special Idaho Pet Mobile vet Dr. Ward was the first to suggest that I needed a winter coat! Mom started searching on the web and thought about making me a coat, but she will readily admit that she's not that handy with a Singer. She tends toward crafting stories instead of sewing memories. Furthermore, Mom doesn't have much sense of measurements. It's part of her SBMC problem: Smart But Math Challenged.

The first coat she ordered was from L.L.Bean, and she was super excited. Did I mention that I am low to the ground? Long? Duh! The barn coat that arrived will fit a Yorkie, but not me, even if it did have my name nicely embroidered on it. Mom felt kind of stupid, so I tried to cheer her up. Besides, L.L.Bean is a great company, and they were nice enough to take back the coat and give us a full refund. I hope some Yorkie named Tootsie is running around in my coat. Here's part of the letter that customer service wrote Mom:


Thank you for contacting L.L.Bean regarding your Pet Coat.

I am so sorry to hear that the coat did not fit your dachshund Tootsie.

We do not have a time limit on returns. You certainly are welcome to wait until December when you are in the US.

If we can be of further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are available 24 hours and are always happy to help.

Our special vet reminded us to look for places that specialize in all things wiener. Mom had a great time looking through jackets and “Hug-a-Dog Harnesses” at the Dachshund Delights store. She found out about them from the "Long and Short of It All: A Dachshund News Magazine."

Dachshund Delights is an awesome store! Their dachshund service is fantastic. They helped Mom figure out how to measure me and followed up with personal emails. My new "Hug-a-Dog CoverUp" arrived before Christmas. Check out the cool print of doggies around my neck!

My new CoverUp coat is long, like me, and short, like me, too. Wotten waven!

La Befana

Today, in Italy and southern Switzerland, a magical witch called La Befana flies on her broomstick to deliver treats to kids who have been good (and charcoal to those who have been bad).

Why on earth kids need more treats after the holiday season, I don't know, but I met La Befana--she's also known as Frau Perchta--earlier this fall in the Valley of Light, and she said I was on her list, too. Wotten waven!

Inside Her Trading

Last August, the Swiss franc was incredibly strong compared to the US dollar. You could buy one dollar with less than 80 cents of a Swiss franc.

"This massive growth of the franc is not sustainable," Dad would say, claiming it was the product of speculation and not the result of economic fundamentals.

"Let's buy a bunch of dollars with our francs," I yipped. "We can always use the dollars stateside to buy my Dr. Hill's Science Plan dog food, which is cheaper west of the Atlantic pond," I added.

Sure enough, I never got around to buying dollars with our francs. Then, on September 6, the Swiss National Bank announced that they were putting the brakes on the Swiss franc by setting a minimum exchange rate with the Euro. The Swiss franc immediately plummeted about 10% compared to pretty much all other major currencies, including the good ol' US dollar. Overnight, you needed almost 90 cents of a Swiss franc to buy one greenback.

Suppose I had bought 10,000 dollars in August. That would have cost me 8,000 francs. After the announcement on September 6, my 10,000 dollars would have been worth 9,000 francs, with a net gain of about 1,000 francs. That buys a whole lot of dog food. But I didn't do any of this funny-money stuff, because I didn't really know what was going on.

I think that Mr. Philipp M. Hildebrand and his wife Kashya, on the other hand, knew very well what was going on. Mr. Hildebrand is the Chairman of the Swiss National Bank. Think of him as the Ben Bernanke of the Alps.

Apparently, Mrs. Hildebrand bought half a million dollars in August and sold her dollars shortly after Mr. Hildebrand's announcement in September that he was putting the brakes on the Swiss franc. Do the math, and the profit exceeds 50,000 Swiss francs (more than 50,000 dollars at today's rate). Now, that buys a lot of dog food.

Mrs. Hildebrand claims that because the dollar was dirt cheap, her actions make sense, and you can't argue with her on that one. The US dollar was dirt cheap. But now Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrand are being accused of insider trading.

I'd like to point out, in all fairness, that the driving force behind the attack on Mr. Hildebrand is an ultra-conservative character by the name of Christoph Blocher. According to Mr. Blocher's weekly magazine Die Weltwoche, Mr. Hildebrand--not his wife--is behind the foreign currency transactions. Mr. Blocher is an eccentric millionaire politician who rose to international fame because of his party's xenophobic electoral ads.

Now I can't help but wondering how much Mr. Blocher made between August and September. I suspect his dogs have a great big stash of insider dog food, and they'll be eating lots of it.

Swiss Caucus

Tootsie attends a cowcus (the Swiss equivalent of a caucus) near Plaffeien, Canton Fribourg, Switzerland.

Island of Origin

On our “Body of a Dancer” book tour, we visited Bainbridge Island, across Puget Sound from Seattle. Bainbridge is Mom’s island of origin. Many of Mom’s dear friends attended the reading at the fantastic indie store Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, just north of Bainbridge.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast with neighbors from Mom's Bainbridge childhood, we all needed a walk.

Mom was amazed to see little signs pointing to the Waterfont Trail alongside the wharfs of Eagle Harbor in Winslow.

The Trail did not exist when Mom was growing up. I especially liked the sculptures.

Whenever I see Old Glory, I ponder about the uniqueness of the American experiment. Yes, a work-in-progress, but a pretty good one, if you ask me.

When Mom saw the Pegasus Coffee House, she got really excited. Mom used to cut high school classes and go to Pegasus with her special friend Denise.

And Grandpa was really excited to see a schooner called the Dolores M. Jackson. The owner had started building this boat years ago, and Grandpa remembered listening to stories about its construction. Well, now it's all finished!

Truffle, my Plott hound brother, has traveled extensively across North America with Mom. During our book tour, however, he couldn't wait to go home. On Bainbridge, he stayed up one full night squeaking, and Mom hardly got any sleep. Mom and Dad took turns walking Truffle every hour throughout the night.

Truffle is a great big fan of Grandpa, and he prefers their Idaho home schedule. He’s very glad to have passed the travel reins to me.

Have a Good Year!

I hope 2012 doesn't tire you out.