[Bossa is Chirribi's Bossa Nova Baby, 12 months, bred by May-Gun Bandige in Gotland, and owned by John Willmore and Diane Webb in California. Bossa's father and Taya's mother are littermates.]

Diane writes:

Congratulations to Bossa and John and Diane! And thank you for the especially good photo!

[Nexus is ABS6 DC Nexus v Dorndorf L CD TD JE RN NA VC Wa-T BHP-G LH, 11 years old.]
[Owl is ABS5 FC Alpine Owl von Dorndorf TD JE NA OAJ SchwhK SchwhKF Wa-T BHP-G LH, 8.5 years old.]
[Viljo is FC Cadium Aurinkosoturi, 2 years old.]

There were 16 Field Champion Dogs in competition on the grounds of the Flint River Beagle Club in Hampton, Georgia today. In second series, Nexus came back High and Owl 4th. When judging concluded, Nexus was the winner, Owl placed 3rd, and Viljo was named NBQ.

What a weekend we had! Congratulations to all our talented guys!

They are pictured below with judge Michael Nothstein. None of them were particularly happy to be having their photo taken. They were hungry and while waiting for photos, I'd been feeding them pieces of muffins left over from breakfast. Nexus is struggling to get down and back to 'em, Owl has a pained "oh if I have to" expression and Viljo is not taking his eyes off the muffins which are on the table to his right. Like if he blinks, they might disappear, ha ha!

"Photos? Who cares? You know, Patt, that it is not nice to keep a dachshund from his appointed appetizer."

[Oslo is ABS11 FC Audi Oslo von Dorndorf CA CG, owned by Stan Knoll of Mississippi.]
[Owl is ABS5 FC Alpine Owl von Dorndorf TD JE NA OAJ SchwhK SchwhKF Wa-T BHP-G LH, owned by Patricia Nance.]
[Nexus is ABS6 DC Nexus v Dorndorf L CD TD JE RN NA VC Wa-T BHP-G LH, owned by Patricia Nance]

In second series of 15 Field Champion Dogs today at the Dachshund Club of Metropolitan Atlanta, Oslo was called back High, Nexus 2nd, and Owl 3rd. When the class judging ended after fourth series, our dogs had finished Oslo 1st, Owl 2nd, and Nexus 3rd.

Furthermore, one of the judges kindly told me that Viljo had had the 6th best score in the class.  There is no recognition for 6th but I am proud of Viljo, too.

Later, Oslo capped the day off by becoming Absolute Winner in a total entry of 75 dachshunds. It is the 11th time that Oslo has won the  Absolute Winner award. Not many dachshunds have won 11 or more Absolutes! I will find out how many have done it.

Congratulations to Stan and Oslo and to Owl and Nexus! And Viljo!

[Babe is ABS3 FC Bob's Babe von Knobydox, owned by Tina Knoll of Mississippi.]

The main reason I drove to Georgia in the first place was to get Babe back to her owners. When Stan called a couple of weeks ago to tell me that Babe had come in heat, he asked me how I wanted to handle the mating. I thought about it and told him my first choice would be to meet him halfway between southern Mississippi and southern Ohio to get Babe. Then, because I knew Stan planned to be at the Atlanta field trials, I said that I would go, too, for the timing was likely to be good for him to get Babe back this weekend.

The timing was great. Babe and Owl mated three times. First time was on Wednesday, March 13. Second time was Friday, March 15. And the third time was Sunday, the 17th. I decided to hold off on updating the Puppies page until we know that Babe is pregnant. For the sake of the good people waiting on puppies, we would like to know as soon as possible. The plan is to have an ultrasound done in mid-April.

In the meantime, I realized that I have very few photos of Babe. So this evening after the field trial, Stan took Babe out and I took some photos.

Babe is of correct size, good temperament, excellent conformation, and has a lot of ability on game. She could use more pigment which is one of the reasons why she was bred to Owl who is quite dark. Babe could also use more coat. So could Owl, frankly, but more hair is not so high on our list of priorities. Besides that, all four grandparents have or had more coat and it is entirely possible that the puppies will, too.

Babe wants to track rabbits! But Stan did not want to enter her in the trials and I agreed with him. The first couple of weeks after mating, we want to keep things as stress-free as possible, including good stress. Babe is 6.5 years old and we are focused on maximizing her chances of "settling" and having a litter.

Babe was grinning a lot. She was happy to see Stan and also to be out of her crate in the car.

By the way, the scars on her muzzle are from Babe being bitten by copperheads. This happened more than once. Afterward, Babe's face was very swollen and she was sick for a few days but bounced back nicely.

Let us hope that Babe is expecting!

[Owl is ABS5 FC Alpine Owl von Dorndorf TD JE NA OAJ SchwhK SchwhKF Wa-T BHP-G LH, owned by Patricia Nance.]
[Oslo is ABS10 FC Audi Oslo von Dorndorf CA CGC, owned by Stan Knoll.]

Owl was called back High and won the class of 17 Field Champion Dogs ("Dogs" here refers to males) at the Dachshund Club of Metropolitan Atlanta. His brother Oslo was NBQ ("Next Best Qualified" after 1st-4th Places) in the same class.

The trials this weekend are being held at the Flint River Beagle Club in Hampton, Georgia. Today's trial was the first dachshund field trial held at Flint River and we are finding them to be excellent running grounds.

Congratulations to Owl (pictured) and Oslo!

Tonight on my way to Georgia, I called work to see how things were going. And also, I confess, to rub it in a bit: "Hi, this is Patt. How's it going? Well, I am still headed south. The sun is shining. The grass is green. The trees are blooming. It is 20 degrees warmer here. And gas is 30 cents a gallon cheaper. " (all with a smile in my voice)

Altogether, it was a 12 hour trip. Three of those hours were spent just getting to the Ohio River. It doesn't seem like it should take three hours to get from my home in south-central Ohio to the Ohio River but there is no freeway, no quick way to do it. This was the first time I "headed south" using this route. It is not fast, but then neither is going west either to Columbus or Chillicothe and picking up I-71 to go to Cincinnati.

This route took me through Oak Hill, Ohio which is where my father was born. It is a small, old village that I had only been through once or twice many years ago. The road took me right past the Oak Hill Public Library. I think I will stop in there one day and check out some of the history of Oak Hill.

In Ironton, I crossed the Ohio River into Ashland, Kentucky. Soon, I got onto I-64 which took me to Lexington and I-75 South. Snow squalls eventually became sunshine.

Nexus (looking a bit like I feel!) appears to be waiting on coffee in our motel room.

True to Stan's assertion that their bitches are ready to breed sooner than has been the norm for mine*, Babe accepted Owl last night.  First day of mating, then, is March 13. Due date to be the middle of May. Here's hoping!

I will update the puppy page soon.

(*Even though they are closely related to mine. Any thoughts or conjectures as to why this might be? Much more sunshine in southern Mississippi than in the Ohio Valley? Living many hours closer to the equator? Different food? ??)

Owl himself as an owlet

Late last night, I went into the kennel to scratch Babe's back, say good night, and turn off the light. I had done the first two and was reaching to do the last when some extra blood on the newspaper covering the floor caught my eye.

With Taya having recently been in heat, I was used to seeing spots of blood on the paper. But this blood did not look like that.

Had Babe hurt herself? I went into the room for further inspection.

Babe appeared to be fine. I looked around and saw, too, some "extra" drops of blood on a dog bed I have in there. "This is strange."

Then I noticed some paper bunched up on the other side of Babe's crate that is also in the room for her to sleep in. I lifted the top layer of paper and saw more blood. Lifted all the paper and jumped a foot in surprise. There was a large, dead rat!

Partly, my surprise was that Babe was fast and stealthy enough to catch a rat in a room that it would have no trouble getting out of. In the doorway, there is a metal dog gate with vertical bars through which it must have entered. Babe did not give it a chance to escape.

Rats are smart and they are fast but Babe, obviously, had been smarter and faster. Good girl, Babe!

I was also surprised that there was a rat in there in the first place. I have not seen evidence of rats or mice around since I began feeding Kiki the (formerly stray) cat. Besides that, my dogs do not let "visitors" go unannounced. They are very good at detecting them and telling me about them.

It was midnight (their time) but I called the Knolls. Patt: "Babe caught a rat!" Stan: "Yeah. She's a good dog. I'm going back to bed."

After I took the rat out - OUT! - I took pictures. And measured it. The body was a full eight inches from nose to base of tail. Naturally, being a rat, the tail was nearly that long.

I told the Knolls today that if Babe catches another rat I am keeping her. They can have Kiki instead.

Stan Knoll called me Thursday night at work to tell me that their Babe had come in heat. We have had 2+ years plans to breed Babe to Owl. A mating of the two actually took place last year in May. By the time I'd gotten to Mississippi, though, we were on the tail end of her cycle. Babe did not become pregnant. We decided we'd "repeat the breeding again in the spring" and that time has arrived.

Accordingly, Stan and I decided to meet halfway so that, this time, I could get Babe and bring her to my house.

Yesterday morning, I'd set the alarm for 5 am, left home at 7:20 and drove south through a lot of rain. Five hours later, I was in Louisville and 3.5 hours or so after that, with walking the dogs and a gas stop in between, I met Stan at the Kentucky/Tennessee state line. We had coffee and talked for an hour, then I put Babe in my car and we both headed back the way we had come.

I like to drive but it made for a long, long day. And Stan had actually driven about an hour further than I did.

All four of my own dogs were with me and everybody traveled very nicely, as usual.

By the time I again hit the hilly and twisting country roads between Chillicothe and home, I was tired and it was very dark. More cautious on both counts, the drive north took longer than the trip south. I finally arrived home at 1:15 am. I wanted nothing more than to go straight to bed but of course the dogs all needed some attention and time to exercise. It was nearly 3:30 before I crawled (literally) under the covers.

Is there anyone alive who does not think that dog people are crazy?  ;  )

Marta's first litter was due to be whelped on Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Marta herself was born in the last Dorndorf litter 3.5 years previously and I was so looking forward to her puppies. The father of the litter was my CH Walmar's Luke v Dorndorf. Luke was not my first choice of stud dogs. In fact, over the past two years, I'd sought out five other dogs, all with other owners, as "first" choices for Marta's first litter. One by one, for reasons of complete infertility, minimal fertility, sickness, and death, five males became unavailable. I nearly began to believe that Marta should not have a litter!

Rather reluctantly, actually, I decided to use Luke. Not because he was not a good dog himself or because I didn't think he could produce well. In fact, Luke had already sired two litters for others and I'd seen and liked the puppies. I simply had doubts that Luke was the best choice for Marta. Central to my thinking was that Luke ran mute on game. I did not want to lose the great trailing voice that Marta had.

I had already set up the whelping box in the little mud room off the kitchen and introduced Marta to it. Turns out that was a good thing.

Saturday morning, March 2, 2002, Marta was acting perfectly normal and I decided to spend some time running errands. I was gone from home about five hours. (Errand running at my house generally includes at least two hours driving, one hour each way.) When I returned through my front door carrying shopping bags, I heard the unmistakable sounds of little puppy noises coming from the direction of the kitchen. I literally dropped the bags where I stood. I hurried into the kitchen. There was Marta, in the whelping box in the mud room, calmly attentive to four little red heads bobbing at her breasts. I spoke her name, she looked briefly up at me, then back down at her puppies. Well, I thought. Who needs me. Nobody here, that's for sure. Marta had everything and everybody well under control.

When Marta had finished, she was mom to seven shiny, healthy, and hungry pups. There were six reds, one black/tan, four males, and three females. Marta raised them all as superbly as she had whelped them. They turned out to be a wonderful - and voicing - crew, these puppies from Luke and Marta.

Happy 11th Birthday to:
Narco and Nathan, both in Dayton, Ohio
Nexus who stayed with me
Nick in Sweden
Nadja in Mississippi
Natasha in Iowa
and Nutmeg in Illinois!

Marta 11 years ago today with the first of her two litters