COW-COW

Rocco is a doggie who adores his toys!  Interestingly, he does not destroy his toys like Cecil and Lily did when they were young (and still had teeth).  Being good hounds, they would take a toy, focus on it, and bear down until it was a pile of fluff and unrecognizable material.  They always enjoyed a good toy, but only until it could be completely destroyed.   Often, that only took a few minutes.

Rocco is different.  He is exhilarated by the very existence of toys.  Rocco carries his toys around with him all the time.  He drags them around, moves them all from place to place and hides them in the yard.  He sleeps with them at night.  He snuggles, chews, mauls, dominates and attacks them with his joy.  Rocco presents his toys as offerings to guests and uses them as a means of communication with us.  In Rocco-World, toys are everything and it makes me wonder if he had any substantial playthings before we got him.

Rocco came to us with a couple of toys from the rescue and of course, we have given him several.  For a while, his favorite toy was a little blue dog he came with. That was followed by “Fox” and then by the beloved “snake” who is nearly indestructible and has been a constant presence in Rocco's daily exploits. 

 Those toys paled in comparison with what was to come.

Last week a dear friend of mine, and her sweet four-legged family, generously presented Lily and Rocco with a whole box of delightful toys.  A veritable plethora of objects guaranteed to provide happiness to small doggies.  Little did we know just HOW much glee was in that box!   

You see, that box contained – Cow-Cow.

 

Cow-Cow last week

Rocco has been in heaven ever since.  From the moment Cow-Cow hit the ground, Rocco has been obsessed with it.  Cow-Cow is unique as he (or she) is a squeaky ball covered with fabric and dressed up to look like a cow.  I have never seen a dog take to a toy with such a vengeance.  Cow-Cow is guarded with the vigilance of the crown jewels.  Cow-Cow is mauled and loved like no other.  It has taken the place of all other toys and consequently is rapidly disintegrating.

 

Above and below - Rocco with his beloved Cow-Cow

 Poor Cow-Cow.  He/she is so "loved", I keep wondering if the Velveteen Rabbit  principal will apply and one day I will come home to find a real, round, chubby cow standing in our living room. 

Cow-Cow today

Quote

Everything's okay in the end.  If it's not okay,  it's not the end
~ Carolyn Myers

I heard this quote today and it just stuck with me.  It stuck so firmly that I had to look up who said it and chew on it all day.  It doesn't have much to do with Rocco, or maybe it does?  I don't know, so I will have to keep chewing on it like a doggie with a toy.

Consistency

Five weeks later - nothing is really different, yet everything has changed.  The joy little Rocco brings to the house is palpable.   Many things about being in the world are still hard, but we walk a little lighter, a little more often.   It’s hard to imagine life without this funny boy.  He is growing and learning every day and we are learning too.  Rocco has taught me that trust does not develop in a vacuum, it can only mature through loving interaction and lots of consistency.  We are nothing if not consistent.  Rocco is one of the most loving, smartest and playful dogs I have ever met.  Some of the cute things he does are hard to even describe, but I will try to record them here.

·      He loves to play with his toys, by himself or with one of us.  He seemingly never tires of moving them from place to place.

·      If anyone comes in the house, he grabs a toy and welcomes them with it.  He drops it for the visitor (at their feet) and waits for them to throw it.  That is a ritual for him.

·      He loves Camille and likes to take his toys to her.  He will pile them outside the door of her room if she stays in there too long.  Too long is relative in Rocco time.

·      Rocco and Lily sleep in a large exercise pen with a bed at each end – I lovingly call this their…Dogworld.  It is the same pen that Cecil and Lily slept in and I don’t think I ever put either of those dogs to bed without having to chase them and physically put them into the pen.  Cecil was the worst as he would simply go “dead weight” on me and force me to lift him in.  Lily would run from one end of the house to the other until I could catch her and lift her in.  When she was young it included a significant amount of chasing.  Now that Lily is older, she is easier to catch.  Rocco is totally different.  As soon as I put Lily into the pen, he runs in on his own and gets right into his bed.  This alone makes me love him.

·      The water dish we have used - forever, has two compartments and we keep them full.  Somehow, it seems that Rocco can only use one of them – the right one.  He will bark and let me know that he is out of water – even if the left one is still full.  No amount of pointing to the full compartment is helpful – the only acceptable answer is to fill up the right one.

·      Rocco does not walk anywhere – he “zooms” from one point in the house to another.

·      He is not a big “barker”, for which we are grateful. Lily is a barker and her high-pitched yap could peel paint off the walls when left unchecked.  Rocco has a deep bark he uses when being a watch-dog, but it is not often.  He does have the funniest little squeak – a chirp really, that he uses when he knows we have said a final no about something.  He chirps once and then again quieter and quieter until he sighs and gives up.  It always makes me laugh

And so I offer these few observations as a glimpse into the evolving world of All-Things-Rocco. Happy Mother’s Day to all - whether your children have two legs or four!

Rocco in Lily's bed

Looking at me

So alert

This week's favorite toy is reindeer.

Getting ready to hide the reindeer

Stand In

The weather has been so drab this week-end that I have not taken many pictures, so Picasso's rendering of his Wiener dog, Lump, will have to stand in. 

Hope the sun comes out soon!

Thursday Night Pictures

Waiting for a treat!

Look at me, I can stand!

Double Trouble

Small Miracles

Rocco's story began with many obstacles, some harder than others, but one by one they are fading away.  When he first came to the Dachshund Rescue, he was so unhappy he would not eat and he was very thin.  The fabulous Wiener Dog Whisperer got him to eat with the aid of a mixture of treats and food.  We used that same method when we first brought him home and he has gained some weight. 

Little by little, Lily (who excels at eating) has been teaching him how to eat like a real dog.  He has been eating without the mix of treats in his food for about a week now, but only when we encourage him and I have been wondering if that would always be necessary. 

I guess not!

Today he went into the kitchen and barked for me to come in!  He has not done this before.  When I got there he was fixed on his bowl and kept looking at the bowl and then at me (kind of like..."hello, how clear do I have to be with you?").  So I got some food into that bowl and he ate it up.  We are happy with small miracles, here.

Resume Normal Breathing

I’m so happy to be home!  Home is good and seems like we have had Rocco forever.  It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago he joined our little family, he is so firmly ensconced in our hearts.  Today is a trifecta of happiness as it is sunny, the Mariners are on and Rocco is here. 

We are really enjoying how Rocco’s personality is emerging - so fun to watch.  He loves his toys, but is good at sharing them with Lily.  He likes moving all the toys from one place to another – one by one. First he moved them all to his bed, today he has moved them all out on to the deck. 

I wonder if we will be able to teach him how to pick them up? 

A job well done.

Happy Picture Sunday

Running with the beloved snake

Hey! You talkin' to me?

Got Reindeer in the tall grass

Takin' snake for a run

Saturday Afternoon

Sitting here watching the Sharks play the Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, doggy on my lap.  It’s just the best. Happy times with a pup.

Watching the sharks play is, in some way, a way to stay connected to my son-in-law Jesse, because he and our daughter are far away (although watching grown men chase pieces of vulcanized rubber with big curved sticks - while skating  - is always fun).  Actually “playoffs” in almost any sport is interesting – but this is more so because is keeps me connected to Jesse while he is off in the wilds of the Bay area saving people from the evils of the super ego, ego and id.  While Jesse is honing his doctor skills, Julia is breathing cultural life into the youth of tomorrow – so proud of them - but we miss them so much.   

Go Sharks!

Home again, home again, digity dog!

Got home from my meeting, yesterday afternoon.  I enjoy this professional group so much and it was a great conference, but I hated being gone all week.  My homesickness was worse than usual missing the Roc-ster so much.  He was outside in the backyard when I got home and when I went down into the yard he just zoomed across the grass and about knocked me over.  Guess he missed me too.  Happy Sunny Saturday!

Really?

I am at a conference in a small town. Because I am missing Rocco and Lily so much, it seemed almost surreal that this statue appeared outside the conference center.



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Separation Anxiety

I am at a meeting all this week in another city and I am away from my sweet Rocco-boy.  Sad!  So, I am reduced to looking at his pictures -  when the presentations lag. 

When I look at his picture my hearing fades out and the speaker starts to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher – Wah Wah Wah…(well, okay that might have happened anyway).  My blood pressure and attentiveness decrease as my happiness goes up.  Here is Rocco’s first little slide show:

The Wiener Dog Whisperer

One of the central figures in Rocco’s rescue odyssey, is the woman who runs the NW Dachshund Rescue.  I will call her the Wiener Dog Whisperer.  This is how I think of her, anyway, as I have never met anyone so in tune with the idiosyncrasies of this breed.  Beyond her incredibly big heart, she is also a kind of wiener dog training/retraining wizard.  Anyone who has tried to train a Dachshund, even as a puppy, will understand that RE-training a Dachshund is a task tantamount to teaching a small child to do a backward summersault, while reciting the alphabet with a mouthful of marbles.  Her skill at retraining Dachshunds, that have had some kind of abuse or neglect, defies description.  Even my chronic hyperbole doesn’t really capture it.  Her love and devotion to these rescue dogs plus her skill - make her extraordinary.

She is also good with the humans who sometimes lead with their hearts rather than their heads, when it comes to adopting dachshunds.  During the process of figuring out if we were the family for Rocco, I marveled at how she managed to be compassionate yet very clear with the boundaries – for the doggie.  I couldn’t do it –it would be too easy to give in to the wants and wishes of the would-be-adopters, just to place the dog (and because I have a neurotic need to please).  The Weiner Dog Whisperer is committed - not to just placing dogs, but placing them in the very best home - for them.  Placing them into homes that will last forever.

The day we arrived to meet Rocco there were 20 dachshunds running around the place. Two that permanently live there and 18 waiting for adoption, they were all shapes, sizes and colors – with a range of issues.  It was so cool.  I think of her rescue as a “free range” rescue, in that the dogs are not kept in kennels.  They live with the Whisperer and her husband as a pack, and all the training takes place in the milieu.  Her love, treats and consistent discipline work a kind of magic on dogs that have been hurt and neglected.  

I won’t say too much about Rocco’s former home.  In reality, we don’t know much and the whisperer is very strict about never giving out identifying information for either party in an adoption.  It’s just as well, as the things we do know make me angry, and what happened could easily have ruined a good dog, if not for the swift and significant retraining he received from the wiener wizard. 

When he arrived at the rescue, Rocco was biting, hiding and so unhappy he didn’t want to eat.  He couldn’t trust people or the environment.  When we got him, after six weeks with the Wiener Dog Whisperer, the biting was on it’s way out and he was eating with the help of treats, though he was still hiding some. We have had him a week and though it does take patience, his rehabilitation is going well.  We are continuing the instructions we were given and Lily helps a lot, as she is an old hound who knows the ropes around here.  Rocco is very social with us – though sometimes still scared, he is eating with Lily like a real dog and treats are only needed for training.  The behaviors he learned - to survive - in his old environment are slowly receding.

What the Weiner Dog Whisper did with Rocco was a marvel, and the result is that a gentle being who was thrown away by a family – and likely would have been euthanized for the nipping alone, now has a new life.  A life that is happy, healthy and joyful.  He is a dog that goes quickly to delight, who loves being loved and is getting more comfortable with being handled.  He eats plain old dog food when it is offered, doesn’t hide at all and loves to play with his toys.  That change was affected in six weeks.  It is a miracle made possible by one woman’s devotion and we will be forever grateful. 

Cute Picture Sunday

This was a big week for Rocco.  He has been working hard to adjust to our home, new rules and the alpha dog, Lily.  He is doing well - though there are still issues to be dealt with - and we are pleased with how he is handling the transition.  Here are some pictures from the week.

Rocco and Lily in conversation

Hello there

Thinking

Are you coming with me...

Learning To Conquer...The Snake

Rocco is settling in and today he got a new toy - Snake.  There are actually two snakes (one for each of the two dogs) but they are virtually the same and Rocco treats them as one.  Today, snake was the center of the universe!
.

Snake was taken to the yard

To be conquered

This is my Snake!

Bringing Snake back in

The struggle

Conquered

So proud of myself

Snake Whisperer

Poor ole snake

The Rescue Vehicle

Where the road ends the fun begins...

You Can’t Rescue A Dachshund With A Prius

I have no idea what the woman who runs the Dachshund rescue assumed about us when she decided that we were the right home for Rocco.  All the questions she asked of us were, appropriately, about our fitness as “doggie owners”.  She certainly never asked about the fitness of our vehicle to travel to the rescue site and we certainly never thought to ask if a Mars Rover would be necessary to get there.

She knew by our address that we lived in the city and we knew she lived in the country, but we didn’t really give it a second thought.  I should have started to wonder when she sent the final okay and told us we needed to use her directions to get there.  This was true, she said, because GPS wouldn’t work, and that there was no cell service near the rescue. Perhaps I didn’t give it a thought because there is no cell service in the building where I work – in the middle of the city.  Or it might have been that we were still just focusing on the things we needed to do to get ready for the dog  - at the house.  I don’t know, but in retrospect we should have thought to ask more about where we were going.

Just for the record, when people tell me “your GPS won’t help you here”, I believe them.  My experience with digital cartography has been frustrating at best and it seems as though the people mapping most areas have likely never interfaced with an actual car.  Thus, we took her at her word and used the directions she sent.  However, my brain didn’t really trip to the fact that we were taking a trip to the wilderness.

And wild it was.  Maybe she knew instinctively that we could take care of ourselves or maybe it was some kind of a test.  An unspoken gauntlet to examine our worthiness as wiener dog rescuers; perhaps a type of merit badge examination for empty-nest, city-dwelling dog lovers.  It’s hard to say.  At any rate, her directions started about a half-mile out of the last city we came to.  We turned off the highway and so began an odyssey worthy of a Humvee!  After the first road, all the rest were - by turns - mud, gravel or a combination of both.  One three-mile stretch was clearly designed as a suspension test for secret military vehicles.  It is clearly impossible to rescue a wiener dog in a Prius, a regular sedan, or any kind of vehicle driven by reasonable rational adults.

Fortunately, I drive a Jeep!

National Pet Day

I am home late from rehearsal tonight, but Rocco won't let me go to bed until I mention that today was National Pet Day.  He reminded me by grabbing Lily's "reindeer" and shaking it so hard it flew through the air and hit me in the head!  It was very exuberant conquest.

It's Different Here

Rocco is from Spokane.  We don't know where he was born, but he lived the majority of his short life in the greater Spokane area.

What is this!?

He is very curious about this wet stuff and the damp long grass in the back yard.  He is actually curious about everything right now!

The Unexpected Happens…How a cup of coffee and a restaurant fire equal a dachshund.

One morning, a few weeks after Cecil died, we were drinking coffee and watching the morning news, when a story came on about a fire at a local restaurant.  They interviewed one of the owners and I thought she looked like a local woman who runs a pet rescue.  It was confusing as this person was a restaurant owner and not identified as the “dog rescuer” we knew.  Being the information junkies we are (and unable to tolerate confusion), we both quickly went online to figure out if the person on television was, indeed, the pet rescuer. 

No big deal, just interesting and an “it’s a small world” moment.  One of our friends had gotten her dog from this woman’s rescue and the woman also works with our vet.  Who knew she also had a restaurant?  We didn't...so it's an interesting small world and the story should end here.  Right? 

Well… not so much.

The news played on and while we were continuing to drink our respective coffee's, Laurel was on the woman’s dog rescue site - looking at Dachshunds.  Again, this could have been the end of the story because there really weren't any young dogs and her rescue is expensive – our friend’s dog cost $500.00.  So, just looking –aren’t they cute – no big deal.

Well…not really.

The unique thing about this woman’s rescue website is that her site functions as a kind of regional clearing house for pet adoption.  It’s not just dogs from around here – it’s dogs from everywhere in the northwest and Canada, literally hundreds of dogs of all breeds.  As the morning wore on, we were on all kinds of sites looking at pictures of little Doxies in need of rescue.  Again, just looking, really  - just playing (like a pyromaniac plays with fire).  We were firmly resolved not to get another dog for a while – for any reason.  We had made this decision for a number of good reasons.

Well…so much for reason…Suddenly there was Rocco.  He had just been put up on the Spokane Dachshund Rescue site.  

 This was the description we read:  This tiny cutie is Rocco and he is in rescue because the kids were too much at his last home. He is doing great here and likes us and company so we know he will make someone a nice boy in his new home. I will be confirming his age (2 years) and posting here. But I had to share his cute photos. Rocco is about 9 or 10 pounds at most so a true mini. Minis do not stay long so if you have a play buddy and a fenced yard then we want to hear from you.

To make a long story - even longer - we talked about it and both said no (we were firm, you know), and went about our day.  I cleaned the house and Laurel went out with a friend.   When they came back, we were all sitting around and looking at his picture, again.  Well, I don’t care how firmly resolved a person is – one can only resist absolute beauty so long – so Laurel said (wait for it…)  "well, go ahead and email them". 

So I sent an email, describing our experience with Cecil and Lily and our dachshund friendly home. I imagined that there would be many many people in front of us waiting to adopt such a beautiful little dog and didn’t think we really had a chance.  They emailed us back within an hour, however, and described more about the dog's past and his issues.  It was not a simple situation, because Rocco had been mistreated in his former home and had come to the rescue nipping and snapping when frightened.  The woman who runs the rescue assumed that this would cancel our interest in Rocco and she offered to show us some other dogs she had ready for adoption who had “no issues”. 

Well…she didn’t know us, yet.

We emailed her back and ask some more questions.   She emailed us back and ask us questions, about our home, our yard, and about lily.  It is quite a process to adopt a dog - I had no idea.

At this point, we were tired (this has taken all day) so, not knowing what else to do, we decided to pray.  I prayed for the decision to become clear to us - Laurel, (being spiritually superior) prayed for “whatever was best for the doggie” to happen.  We said Amen and agreed that we would simply wait.  I expected that we would not hear back from the woman until morning at the earliest.  

Well…I didn't know her, yet.

Maybe 90 seconds after amen, the woman emailed us back and said she thought we would be the family for Rocco.

But wait, there’s more!

There was one additional problem to solve.  We were headed to San Mateo to see Jesse and Julia, the next week.  It would be nearly two weeks until we would be able to pick up the doggie, far longer than the rescue was used to waiting.  I really thought timing might be the deal breaker on the situation, but the woman was very gracious.  She agreed to keep him until we could drive to Spokane and would continue her “boot camp” working to help him learn to trust again.  We agreed to pay up front (non-refundable) – not yet having met him. 

Game on!

Dragin' The Fox

Rocco loves Fox.  Fox is longer then Rocco - but is no match for Rocco's tenacity and courage.  Fox is dragged from he deck to the yard - the process is repeated over and over.

Fox thinks Rocco is a drag.

Morning Pictures

Rocco seems to be letting me know he would rather be sleeping then posing.  Note: he has pulled all of his toys into to bed with him.

A Word About Lily

Lily is our twelve-year-old dachshund.  We use to say that Cecil was our dog and Lily was his dog.  Where Cecil was noble, Lily was comical and they were perfect companions for one another.  Often it felt like they were leading some kind of parallel life with us - letting us in on occasion.  As Cecil became more and more ill he slept a great deal of the time and Lily matched him.  As he slowed down so did she and her feisty comical nature was significantly blunted.

Since Cecil has been gone, Lily has slowly recovered some of her silly nature.  It has been good to watch her want to play.  It is going to be interesting to see how she reacts to HER new dog, Rocco.  Today I saw some of that as they were hanging out in the yard together.  The pictures below are lily playing in the yard.