Every Labor Day weekend the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds has Oktoberfest.
One of the highlights is the wiener dog races. I love watching those little legs run as fast as they can.
Our family has always owned dachshunds. In 1968, we got our first doxie – Schnapps. He came as a puppy from Florida, actually riding on a plane before any of us. He loved to swim and would bark non-stop and bite at the splashes when we were in the pool. We would put him on an inner tube and he would float around the pool. He was very protective of all of us and his food and rawhides. Some might say he was a little nippy. He was a natural at sitting up and begging. My sister taught him to say “por favor”. She was the only one learning Spanish, so we had to take her word for it.
At Christmastime, my mom would bake cookies during the day and hide them so we wouldn’t eat them before Christmas. One year, Schnapps found a box of chocolate chip cookies hidden in her closet, and helped himself. His little belly was so full and we worried he would be sick -and this was before we knew chocolate was bad for dogs. He lived fortunately, although my mother sure wanted to kill him that night.
I used to have a gerbil named Spanky which I kept in a small aquarium. Sometimes, if something had spilled in the oven, the smoke alarm would go off at the top of our stairs. Schnapps would dart up the stairs, go right to the gerbil aquarium, and start barking and poking his nose right on the glass until the alarm stopped. He thought the gerbil was making that noise. I never said he was smart.
Schnapps never raced at Oktoberfest. I bet he would have been a contender while in his prime. I think he was about 12 when he died. We buried him in the backyard – a little area we called the pet cemetery. I wondered how he felt being buried near Spanky. He probably said something smart like, “Hey rat, I don’t want anymore noise from you.” Schnapps – always had a little attitude.
Thank you Gale for sharing about Schnapps. We welcome our friends to share their stories of a favorite pet with us.
Terrie Sizemore I have seen these little guys race and they are fun! I also had doxies- my little Tilly was terrific. Smart is a word. One evening while I was sitting in a chair in front of the television, writing, I noticed Tilly out of the corner of my eye. Her nails would normally tap on the floor so she was tip toeing to get past me and looking at me the entire time to see if she could get by without my noticing. I let her get a little way and called her name, she raced – not as fast as this little racing dog, but fast – to get back to her blanket. Cute and smart. Great combo in a dog.
Terrie Sizemore’s photo.