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Likes: freeze-dried liver squares, rollerblading, any rodent, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes. A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N.
Pet-Peeves: not speaking to her directly -- leaving without explaining to her where & for how long.
Favorite Toy: the red, rubber octopus, the grey pound puppy, the squeaky shark.
Favorite Food: red bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, liver cubes, Flint River Ranch.
Favorite Walk: ...anywhere with Mommy: French Quarter, Cabrini Dog Park, City Park, petSmart!
Best Tricks: standing straight up & balancing like a rocket ship with her tail.
Arrival Story: first, a funny near-abduction story: late one night, while talking to friends outside of 735 on Bourbon Street, i let her sort of wander while getting petted. she used to get walked & passed around by many frinds & locals anyhow, a real community dog, so i was not too vigilant. someone mentioned the limousine she was visiting in was starting to get moving, so i followed what was left hanging of the leash & found her with the DIXIE CHICKS! Miss Natalie Maines had gretch in her lap!!! everyting worked out well once i reasserted my claim, & i do love those girls, particularly in recent years. hell, looking back, Miss Natalie deserved my gretch as a prize for her courage alone! ----- how she first came to be mine: one Christmas Eve, a pet store employee told me that he had won a dog in a store holiday raffle & could not keep her. he used to see me drool over the Dachshunds every day on my way back & forth to school. he asked if i wanted her & i went nuts! he said to come back at 10:30 pm with a blanket. i did, & he gave her to me with her papers... this was my favorite breed of breeds, & thus years of Christmas prayers were answered!!! i was just about to be able to get a dog, so this was a miracle. years later, in still frequenting the pet store, i found out she was in the back to be returned because of a facial scar. she was going to be "returned", & i saved her. "returned", hah! she was my dream dog... come-true.
Bio: my beloved Gretch made the trip to Valhalla the first week of 2004, after a sudden & very odd case of gastric bloat from normal pet food she had eaten before. in fact, we took her on our honeymoon, (of course), & this is what she had eaten then, a few years before. & we all know wienies do NOT get BLOAT! this was supposed to have resolved when we left the emergency vet's. she was released from the hospital, but died suddenly & unexpectedly in the middle of the night in my arms three days later. she was only 14-1/2, which is YOUNG for a Mini Dachshund! talk about feeling cheated. many, many of her pals from the New Orleans Dachshund Society & those that march in our group at the Krewe Of Barkus parade are 20+ years. my heart is still terribly shattered. i miss her every minute of every day, with every fiber of my being, as i spent nearly every great moment of my life until then with her. she traveled the country with me, & loved LA, Seattle, & Connecticut especially. she accompanied me to many a class at NYU for years, sat in my lap sharing popcorn at the movies, & snuggled in my lap enjoying the opera or the ballet at the Met. we went hiking, canoeing, camping, & on lots of vacations to the shore where she loved the skyride, etc. she loved to ride in her backpack every day while rollerblading around NYC & particularly Central Park, & she was always at the ready for her place in her basket on my bicycle. she has been the toast of zillions of parties & nonprofit fucntions all over NYC, NJ, & LA, as i would often get reminded to "bring gretch". she would come with me to homeless shelters, nursing homes, veterans' homes, burn units, & outings with abused children, & she made enormous amounts of friends in those places. she would curl up in my duffel bag at the gym every day while i taught step classes & went to yoga rooms & hung out before it was fashionable & cost extra. she loved grocery shopping, the video store, & the library, the subway, the Circle Line, & the LIRR, & the ferry, & knew just how to behave in each place. New Orleans was truly Heaven on Earth, as she could come openly to nearly every single place i went, which was good, because there was no heavy coat to hide in anymore! (: Halloween(ie) was always a treat, as she loved to dress up & get even more attention & treats: she has been a bumblebee, pretzel rod, hot dog with Easter grass sauerkraut, speed bump, magician's wand, & more. i have spent many long hours after a hard day of work & school hunting around the apartment building for her, finding which neighbor had stolen her for an evening of videos & delicious food, she served as a regular "rent-a-pet" to many friends & neighbors without a fee! but this would all pay off at Christmastime!!! she has stowed away on trains & cruise ships, attended scores of Rocky Horror Picture Shows where she was a visual aid for "Hot Dog", & loved sneaking into the drive-through safari at Six Flags Great Adventure, where she defended the car from monkeys & was slobberslime-webbed all over her head by the lickings from a friendly giraffe, boy what a MESS. she was a big hit at the first Lollapalooza in Stanhope, & had people coming back to visit her the second day. she loved to run up & down the tops of the bars in the French Quarter & the Marigny, begging for nasty raw oysters. she has been photographed with every major known hot dog vendor cart in the country, & quite a few independents, (she preferred Sabretts, being so lean & snappy herself.) she was always a few feet away while doing homework, laundry, or reading, & slept on my pillow every night. she was my favorite cooking partner for many years, loving to taste test the raw vegetables. she was an absolute tough chick & complete trooper, as she had over $9000 worth of back surgery when she was 4 years old, & a revision at 6&1/2, & snapped back like a little red rubber band each time. she was right next to me in almost everything i did for so many years, it was a truly cruel blow to learn to function without her. --- she completely changed the course of my life additionally, in that i turned down the peace corps & another lifestyle that would have sent me travelling steadily for years, solely because i did not want to be apart from my precious gretch for any length of time. anyhow, this was my first personal pet loss, & it was catastrophically terrible, & still is. she was the best & most constant companion anyone could ever even dream up: my little red shadow... i love her with all my heart. i had the carbon extracted from her ashes, & it is awaiting being formed into a red diamond from LifeGem. i still cannot convince myself that she is gone; i lost at least two years in my memory from being in a dense fog of grief. -----> when RePet becomes a reality, i will be the VERY FIRST through the doorway.
Forums Motto: I am the caulk between you & the couch. Dogster Local Spots I've Marked: Dr Mikes Animal House The Groups I'm In: "DOGSTERHOLICS", ♥ Steve Irwin Memorial ♥, 10 YEARS OR OVER??? DOGS or CATS, AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY, Cesar's Dogster Pack, Dashing for Dachshunds, Rescued Puppies with Great Rescue Stories, Weenie Lovers, ^^^^******Dachshunds of the world******^^^^, ~~~*♥Dog Park USA♥*~~~
guess what?: J'embrasse mon chien sur la bouche!
you would hve been 20 years old today; which you deserved. & oh, what a wienie partywe would have for you! remember all the 20+-year-old hot dogs we met? how sure i was we would have that. then again, i cringe at the terror of having to start the hell from 2004 all over again now, or soon.
i love you so much, & i wish you were here, for so very many reasons.... one of which is, of course, biting the tail!!! ("ketchup bottle" is a close second.)
oh, my sweet, precious, red shadow, how i miss you. this is the night i lost you, & i remember it in all too raw a fashion. three years gone? THREE? i cannot even believe everything has gone on so long without you, as everything i came to know included you. i totally cannot believe i have not gotten another Dachshund, as that was such a part of my identity; you were. how people recognized or remembered me just by you, or even knew me as just "your Mommie". i would have, without question, believed i would have another within the week if not day. why have i not? i have no idea. i remember falling to pieces when i met that little black & tan guy going to pick up Mr. Sixx from the neutering, & maybe one since then, but have not even looked; not at anything real. i saw one online, Maxine, that looked just like you; she was a doll. i asked about her & that was about it. i have been wienieless for three years now; so hard to believe. i guess i just cannot replace you. i want one so badly, i have no idea why i have not gotten another, i adored you & everything like you to precious pieces. i guess i never motivate myself to go looking, perhaps thinking everything could only be a faint copy. not just your looks, & you were just so gorgeous, sleek, lovely stag, big, beautiful "insect eyes", but your personality. not that i have met a boring Dachshund, but everyone was so attuned & attached to you; i guess deep down i know the comparisons would kill me. oh, my little girl, how you made just every good thing in my life more wonderful & every crummy thing liveable, from those first weeks alone in New York City, after only having been a Southern Girl, to all that followed, you were just my anchor & my strength for everything that came my way. pretty amazing considering your 9 pounds & tiny stature, but then everyone always commented on your "big-girl bark" & they were so surprised to see it was "just a little hot dog" at the other end. so many of them live to 20+, & i have to say i am still a bit bitter that i, who loved you more than words or kisses or petting could ever express, was deprived of say a quarter of your life, of what i hoped for, & what i always expected. but then, i wonder to myself, when would it EVER have been manageable to lose you, ever have been enough, ever okay, ever anything but a wrenching pain? when would i ever have been able to gracefully say goodbye to you as you left me & went off where i could not follow? i mean, mathematically, would not another five years with you by my side have made it that much worse to find myself without? Aunty Gloria just lost Skoli after 16 years a few days ago, & she had to make the terrible decision to help her on. we were planned to go & visit her tomorrow, your day that you left me, & Skoli was so Dachshund-y, i was just lying on the floor petting her last Saturday & all i saw was you. now i have to go & comfort her as i should, on a day that i feel my heart & mind are scattered so very far; it is almost too crazy to be true, but i certainly cannot back out on her now, as much as it will be a terrible & compounded loss. oh, Gretch, i love you so very much. i guess you are just the first precious & constant thing i have had to learn to go on without, & it certainly kills me. i still stare at your pictures, remembering what i was thinking when i took them & remembering the pain that i would so often be part of when "ex-Dachshund" people approached us when we were out, telling me tales of their last moments, the devotion, the loyalty, the pain, the disbelief; & you were so young, & i felt invinceable. i mean, i guess i always knew, but it just seemed forever away. forever away. although i surely thought you would still be here even now. i remember calling people to let them know, & the bawling; everyone just loved you so very much. you were just the most incredible dog, ever. & i even feel myself a little, just so ever slightly withheld from Sable, because all i can see in her is the end, & a whole lot sooner than even we had together, because that is just how it is for her type. like anything could be more lamentable than our short time; i cannot imagine less. i mean, i would say i love her to pieces, like you, but then i look at her & she is like a time bomb sometimes, & i have to snap myself out of it. it sounds crazy, but all the heartbreaks you saved me from caught up with me when i lost you. everything that you made "all better" came avalanching back upon me. so, it was losing you & then 15 years of "deferred pain", because i just got through anything & everything with you. all anguish was postponed. it seemed great at the time, but i guess not too good of an idea. but then when i think about it, i cannot imagine it having been any easier to lose my little red shadow anyhow, so i guess it was efficient to tie it altogether into a few months. i used to feel ridiculous, a lot, but then i read about someone else;s "lost year", & how their pet came into their life, & it was so very similar, i guess it is okay after all. i honestly do not regret a second with you, but i only wish i had more, so many more. i still have not completely realized you just are not here at all & will not ever be again. i remember how much i talked to you all throughout the day... & waking up to your precious little face on my pillow; i still so often expect it to be there when i open my eyes; one would think i had gotten used to it by now. oh, you made my life so wonderful; everything led back to you. i guess it was maternal, maybe that is how some of us go along without having children, i don;t know, all i know is i could never wait to get home to you, on the occasions you were not already with me, that is. you were not my only or my first loss, but you were just where i turned to make the others okay, so in your absence, & in losing you... you belie what is rational for me, because i hope only that there is somewhere, beyond just these too-short dreams, where i will be with you again. they certainly never underestimated the "man;s best friend" bond, not in your case. you were a miracle & an unimagineable blessing & your loyalty was beyond description. something in sleep is sympathetic, as every dream i have remembered since includes you, as normally you would be, & you are there with me as ever you were. well, off to sleep with me now, hopefully to meet up with you & "normal" again. i so love you, Gretch.
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