I love my dogs. They really are both very sweet and seriously cute. I have a dachshund that I've had for several years now and a red bonehound mix. The hound mix is similar to the "Where the Red Fern Grows" dogs, cue sappy music-probably the saddest story I was ever required to read in school-spoiler alert both of the dogs die. Sasha, the bonehound is our newest dog and she's training and adjusting quite well mostly because she will do ANYTHING for food. Both of our dogs are rescue dogs. Oscar was pretty badly abused and hates most men which is a big part of why I got him in the first place.
When I first moved to New Hampshire, life was pretty hard. There's not much of a night life up here for someone in their early twenties and it's really hard to meet people when you're new to the area. I was going through a breakup after being here for a year and all my friends I had established were my ex's lifelong childhood friends which made the breakup that much more difficult. I wasn't just breaking up with my ex, I was breaking up with all of our friends it seemed. On top of that, we had a dog together. Lou Dog Beagle was a beagle mix frat dog that was truly a dudes dog. Even though I often was the one walking him, he loved being with my ex. I knew I couldn't take him with me when I moved out.
So I called around to local shelters looking for small dogs because I knew I'd be living in a small apartment and I didn't think it would be fair to have a big dog in a small space. I called Lucy Mackenzie Shelter in Brownsville, VT and they had the perfect match. The lady on the phone outlined all of Oscar's adorable traits and I was sold...little did she know, it wouldn't have taken much to sell me on any animal at that point. After all the good stuff, she said, "There's one more thing...Oscar doesn't like men." I said, "PERFECT! I'LL TAKE HIM!" She elaborated, "Oscar doesn't just not-like-men, he hates them, he bites them." I said, "EVEN BETTER." I went to the shelter to fill out the application and walk Oscar to see if it would be a good fit. On the walk, he was very dutiful, sniffing out all the other animals and tugging right along. I was amazed at how fast such a little long dog could be. I couldn't take him home with me that day because the shelter had to check my references. But when I went to say goodbye that's when it happened, that is really when my little wienie man stole my heart. I undid his leash and started to stand back up when he jumped up and kissed me.
We've had Sasha for about 6 months now. It was nice to get a dog with someone who was just as excited about it as me. It was fun to pick her out together. We went to the same shelter I got Oscar. They had a new location that was this giant, gorgeous farm. Sasha had been living with two dachshunds but their owner had passed away. She was sweet and VERY energetic. She definitely was loved, perhaps a little over-loved judging by her weight problem but she was absolutely adorable. We visited a few times because we didn't want to bring Oscar until we knew we were interested. When Oscar came both Brian and I were on high alert to everything hoping it went well and that Oscar wouldn't get anxious. I'm fairly certain we were way more nervous than he was. He just went over to the cat room that was all windows and chased a little kitten back and forth (there was glass separating them, he likes cats). Brian and I walked Sasha and Oscar together and both of them were completely uninterested in each other. But when we took them inside Sasha was kind of excited and Oscar wanted nothing to do with her. Sasha, being fat, tired and happy then literally flopped over and that's when Oscar went over to sniff her. After the sniff they became fast friends-you would think that butt sniffing would have offended her but she is all hound and I think she understood.
Yesterday my dogs made it on my shit list for a number of reasons. Below are my reasons posted in chronological order.
1. I take them outside before I go to the gym and what do they do...putz around and eat grass even though I yell at them not to.
2. I get inside to let them off the leash and Oscar pukes up all the grass he just ate. Sick!
3. I come back from the gym and find out Sasha peed downstairs on the rug after I tried to get her to go earlier...little bitch!
4. I come home from work to find garbage all over the place. They opened the kitchen door under the sink where we keep the trash, pulled it out and ravaged it all over both the kitchen and living room!!!
5. I try to be patient and nice about the garbage fiasco, take a deep breath, put on the party music channel and go to open the door to the deck. Out from hiding comes Sasha barreling into the screen door knocking it completely off track.
6. While rushing past me, Sasha used my foot to push off for her leap through the screen and successfully broke my newest pair of sandals that were also my wedding shoes! UGHHHH!!!! My dress has already been fitted to those shoes too!
7. The trash that they pulled out was VERY full, and had at least 5 coffee pots worth of grinds and filters which is SUCH a pain to pick up.
8. As I was crying and picking up the trash I discover Oscar's little "present" he left me in the pile of trash in the living room. And in case "present" isn't obvious, all that trash Oscar ate made him go number 2...what a treat after a long day of work.
To top it off, something that wasn't their fault but still added to my frustration. We found two dead rodents in their food bag that was fairly new and full. We had to throw both bags out (they each eat different food). After work, pre-dumpster diving dogs, I had to get new food and a tupperware bin to seal it in. Going to Walmart in the Upper Valley is no easy feat at 5pm. There's one road that everyone and their cousin is on at that time of day and that's the one to Walmart. There's construction all over that area and people drive horribly through it all the time. It was a mad house everywhere that day and then I come home to the trash fiasco/broken wedding shoes. Funny enough, I can be patient about the trash, but you don't mess with my shoes.
