Meet my Doxies

Rommel is my classic red dachshund and my first love. My husband gave him to me on our 15th wedding anniversary, so I blame him for my dachshund obsession.

A super efficient hunter (he puts our cats to shame when it comes to rodent hunting), he’s also completely obsessed with playing fetch. He’ll force you to throw a ball / squeeky toy / whatever and chase it at full speed four hours — to the point where his tongue is hanging out and he’s falling over half-dead from exertion.

Aside from play fetch, Rommel loves a good afternoon lounging in the sun punctuated by a frequent (maybe too frequent) good scratch.

I got Franzi about a year and a half after Rommel. I fell in love with her the first time I saw her as a 12-week old puppy chasing and killing a candy bar wrapper. She was one of the last in her litter — unwanted because she had an extra set of ribs that prevented her from being “show quality.” I didn’t care because this dog had 10 times the moxie of any other doxie.

A “real” dachshunds, she’s a proficient hunter / digger and loves spending her days in our orchard tunneling into gopher holes and ground squirrel burrows in pursuit of prey. Sometimes (often much to her surprise) she even catches one. Being a “real” dachshund, she’s also reckless to the point of stupid and will everything from geese to rattlesnakes and coyotes.

Like some of us ladies, even though she’s active, Franzi loves her food and often struggles with her weight (she also has Cushing’s Disease, which doesn’t help). As a result, the family often refers to her as “foodsy”.

As the third addition to the pack, Montgomery was, for a while, the youngest member. Even though he hasn’t been a puppy for years, I still think of him as “the baby.”

“Monkey,” as we often call him, was a rescue. The product of unscrupulous in-breeding, he’s a quasi-piebald with the problems that come with that strain of doxies — blind in one eye, mentally challenged and Cushing’s Disease. I rescued him from being dumped at the pound and took him home where he promptly became an integral member of the Doxie Planet (fortunately, dogs don’t discriminate based on appearance or ability).

Although he has disabilities, he never lets them get in the way and follows Franzi on hunts without hesitation. He’s also a big cuddler (Rommel and Franzi, not so much), and an excellent dancer.

He also has one of the loudest barks you’ve ever heard. When he gets going, he can make the pots in the cupboard ring.

Hank is another rescue. He was hit by a car and animal control picked him up and took him to a shelter where one of our foster kids worked.

His right hind leg was damaged in the accident, and after it healed it gave him a sort of “hop” when he runs, so we often refer to him as “Hop Along Hank”.

Among the pack, he’s the smallest in size, but definitely not in spirit. Show him a squirrel and he turns into a fearless, single-minded hound. And even though he doesn’t have the single-minded hunting and digging instinct that Franzi and Monkey have, once the pack is set off, he’s right there in the middle of it.

Hercules is the newest member of the pack. He’s only 3 months old as I write this, and he could not be more adorable.

His parents are a real Dachshund couple (no breeders here), and he’s the perfect combination of mom (a classic red), and dad (a black and tan).

He’s got front paws the size of shovels and gigantic floppy ears that he steps on now and again, but I think he’s going to grow into both just fine. He may also end up being the biggest doxie of the pack — he’s already bigger than Hank.

Herc has only been with us for a couple of weeks, but he’s settled right in and made himself at home. He has all the confidence of a true dachshund, though we’re still waiting to see if he’s a real badger dog like Franzi and Monkey. (My husband hopes not. Franzi and Monkey can turn sections of the yard into a moonscape in their pursuit of ground squirrels and gophers).