Friday, September 30, 2005 - Our hairy babies

There has been a lot of talk lately about dog ownership so I thought I would share our experience. We have three Miniature Pinschers, or Min. Pins. for short . The breed is known as the 'King of toys', due to the fact that despite being a small toy dog only 12" at the withers(shoulders) Min. Pins. are quite gregarious, having the personality of a much larger dog. There is a Min. Pin. link to the right of my blog if you are further interested in the specific breed.

 Our first Min. Pin. is pictured at the back of the photo. As he was was so large and fierce I named him Spike after the dog from the Tom & Jerry cartoons. We've had him 5 years and I tought him some tricks, he 'talks' on command, rolls over, 'shakes hands' and jumps.

About a year later we decided to get Spike a friend, so we purchased Siouxsie, she is a black & rust Min.Pin. We literally had Siouxsie home for less than an hour and I decided to take a digital photo. Placing her on a chair, Siouxsie slid off the chair and broke her leg, fixing the leg cost $700 in vet bills, I also felt very guilty breaking her leg on the day we got her home, at the time she was only 3 pounds with legs like little chicken bones.

Spike and Siouxsie were not speyed or neutered, so next  thing was that Siouxsie was going to have puppies( pictured below).When the time was due Elina and I waited up till 2AM in the morning the day that Siouxsie had her pups, with no pups in sight we reluctantly went to bed. I was awoke early the next morning by some high pitched whines, at first I thought it was the remnants of a dream. Rushing to the kitchen I discovered 2 puppies had arrived safely, Elina and I watched Siouxsie deliver three more making 5 in total.  She had four boys and one girl, ranging in colors from black and rust, red stag( red with intermingling black hairs) to the pure red girl( second from left), they weighed in at a pitiful 4 - 5 ounces each .

 With the exception of one pup all the litter went to good homes safely at 10 -12 weeks old, the only crisis was a late night trip to an emergency vet in the middle of the night after one got food stuck up it's nose. We could not find a home for one of the pups, at 12 weeks old Elina made the fatal mistake of naming him Zorro. Zorro is Spanish for fox, which seemed appropriate as he resembles a little fox and was born on Cinco de Mayo.  Zorro is on the right with his back to the camera, maybe that was his way of informing us he did'nt want to leave?

Three dogs is probably one too many, especially with a two year old son and another on the way in January 2006, but we seem to manage, just call us white trash!