Tabby racing at Howl-O-Weenie

Check out my little girl racing across the field at Howl-O-Weenie. The best part is the facial expressions on the crowd. She can fly! I will race her again at DRNA's picnic on 11/3. She is such an ambassador for "down" doggies. Her injury doesn't slow her down one bit. If you have not checked out her video on YouTube, please do. Just search for Adventures of Tabby and you'll see it.

Howl-O-Weenie!

My feet hurt. My legs hurt. My back hurts. My triceps hurt. But my heart is full of gratitude and my head is abuzz with ideas for next year.

We howled yesterday!

Our 5th annual festival and picnic was a huge success! I am so tired I can't put together a coherent narrative, so I will just list for you some of the memories that stick out.

Spotting the peacock as it strutted around the grounds. What an engineering feat that costume was!

Meeting Gloria, who told me this was the best day she'd had in years, and now she wants to adopt a dachshund.

Seeing the alumni dogs, the fosters who we loved and cared for until their forever homes found them, looking so happy and well-loved by their new families. I know I will leave someone out, but here's a try: Midnight (Murphy), Giacomo (Murphy), Patti (Erica), Bart, Lacey, Teddy, Ande, Bobo, Lorelei, Beans, Tracy (Amber), Sydney, and Doc-a-doodle.

The shards of mirror from the beautiful mosaic dog beds and highchair, reflecting the sunlight.

Carol's amazing dachshund trophies.

The hotdog line, moving fast, full of people who looked happy to be spending an afternoon of glorious weather outside watching the crazy weiner dog people.

So many people wearing the 2005 and 2006 T-shirts! Cool!

The MAD-MUG Dachshund meetup group giving the IQ tests.

Kerry from Lifeline Animal Project saying next year she was going to get someone else to run her booth so her dachshund can race.

The race! Man do those dachsies fly!

My little Tabby crossing the field to her mama while everyone cheered.

All the people who came by to meet the 3 "down" dachsies and learn about them and their high quality of life. Tabby, Luke, and Jack enjoyed all the attention.

The doggie whose nail clipping hit the quick and his mama holding him while they applied pressure.

The lady who scolded me about not having recycling bins, right after I made a note to myself to make sure to have recycling bins next year. Oy!

Walking around the ballfield holding RLand's weirdly beautiful dachshund art over my head for the auction.

Trish and Paul arriving out of breath, just in time to enter Darcy and Panzer in the last heat of the dash, because they made Paul's parents leave the game at halftime.

Realizing during cleanup that I hadn't gone to the bathroom since 7 AM.

Seeing my work colleague Bill crossing the picnic with his family and 5 longhairs.

Talking to Heather and Derek about how far Lorelei has come in her shyness.

I'm sure I'll come back and add more over the course of the day.

(By the way, this pic is of a little guy who arrived too late for the costume contests. As you can see, "The Fuzz" was out in force!)

Oh, how we howled!

Sad day in a joyous week

In the crazy hustle bustle hurly burly of getting ready for one of the happiest days of our year, HowlOWeenie, we've had a sad day at DREAM. Our sweet foster Dupre, who came to us 4 months ago with a severe heartworm infestation, died last night.
Dupre was about 9 years old. He had lived a life of neglect, kept outside in a pen in the Georgia heat and cold, all of his life. He had never received vaccinations or heartworm preventative. When he came to DREAM, he didn't know what a pillow was for. (Although it must be said that he figured that out quickly.)
Dupre weathered his 3 months of painful heartworm treatment, and the necessary crate rest, bravely and with aplomb. (This is where he figured out the pillow part - he had lots of time in the crate!) He had one scary episode in the last month of treatment, in which he vomited blood and was hemorrhaging. With quick action by his vigilant foster parents, he survived. A month later, he was given a clean bill of health and pronounced ready for his much-needed dental cleaning and neuter. In the days before his surgery, he felt great and spent his time playing in the yard with his foster brothers and sisters for the first time.
He lost 10 teeth in his dental procedure, severely rotted because he had been on poor quality food and, of course, had never had his teeth brushed.
Two days later he began having seizures. Although we do not know what exactly happened, the best guess is that he had a history of seizures, and one had just not come up before now. (Many dogs with seizure disorders, including one of my own, have only 1-2 seizures a year.) Perhaps the stress of the surgery, or the anesthesia, or the dental, brought it on. The seizures would not stop, no matter what the vet tried. In desperation we decided that injected phenobarbital might allow Dupre to sleep and get enough rest to heal. We tried it, and indeed he did better and was able to sleep peacefully. In the middle of this needed rest, though, his heart stopped in the night and he died in his sleep.

I truly believe that Dupre died knowing he was loved for the first time in his life. That evening, before he had the injection, his foster mom held him and talked to him and made sure that he knew he was not alone, and that we were doing everything we could for him. I saw his eyes clear, and he did not look afraid.
We are very grateful for our foster homes, the heart of this organization.
This is why we do what we do -- because sometimes no one else will take care of these dogs, and their hearts are pure.

We look forward to seeing all of you on Saturday at HowlOWeenie. Our hearts will be a little heavier than usual.

Another little black and tan guy begins his heartworm treatment tomorrow. It never ends.