Story submitted 2002-01-15

I first saw Dolly (pictured with Gertrude) on the DRNA website around November 2001. She looked so forlorn in her photo, a little like Eeyore, and I instantly fell for her. She had been turned in as a stray with puppies and the puppies had been adopted and no one wanted her. Telling myself that she was a "Christmas Present" for my boyfriend, I decided to apply for her, knowing full well my boyfriend didn't want a dog and that I'd get to keep her. I didn't even notice she wasn't a full blooded doxie. I anxiously waited for the home visit and was approved and met with her foster mom and dad, who drove from Pennsylvania to Maryland to meet up with me and deliver her. She was much larger than what I'd expected but I didn't care.She was also VERY vocal, but her rescuers assured me she was the quietest dog in the house. Our best guess is that she's a black and tan coonhound mixed with a dachshund and she hasn't stopped talking to us since I got her. Her daddy (the boyfriend mentioned before) loves her just as much as I do and she's gotten to go on quite a few adventures with us. She's run on the beaches, and has a nose for decaying horseshoe crabs. She can also detect fast food being eaten from 500 yards away. She'll take off running, screaming with excitement at the prospect of a handout from a stranger. She hoards her treats and will hover over them until she is satisfied that no one else will get to enjoy them. She can't eat a rawhide without playing the "Rawhide" game, where you take it away from her and toss it for her to catch. She is just so comical, barking with that rawhide in her mouth. She has a very wide vocabulary, moaning, barking, screaming about something. When she rides in the truck, she sits like people, with her nose to the window and arm on the armrest, and when she eats, she sits like a lady, her legs off to one side. So proper! Lately, she's become obsessed with the garden tractor at the dog park we go to every day. She'd even stopped playing with other dogs just to sit and stare for that tractor up by the shed. When someone goes near it to drive, she sounds the alarm, telling her friend Buddy that the hunt is on. They'll run up and down the fence in hot pursuit of that thing, until it's parked out of her sight, and she sits and stares for it again. I was starting to get worried, other people at the park thought she'd been abandoned and was watching for her owner and I had to tell them of her obsession. Fortunately, she's been getting back to normal, playing with the other dogs again. When it's time for bed, she'll tell me by sitting at the top of the stairs and moaning at me to come up. When we're at her daddy's house, she insists on being the middle part of the letter "H" between us when we're sleeping. In the morning, she'll insist on getting up early just so she can sleep downstairs while we're on the couches. She gives the best kisses with that overbite of hers and she definitely is wanted! Her daddy often reminds methat I got her for him, but he had his chance. Dolly is staying with me and the only way he'll get to keep her is if he marries her mommy! I'm so happy I found her on the website, I can't imagine life without her!


Andrea Newborg