Just Me Copper

25 things about me ...

2009-01-27T22:47:00.006-05:00

While I try hard to think about things that start with F, I want to try another game that is going around on facebook. My Mom is on facebook and she wishes she could play the game there but no one has asked her to play. How sad is my boring mother ... she has friends but no one will play with her.

Ok, here goes.

1. I am a dachshund. That is the most important thing about me.
2. I am a long haired dachsund, something a little different.
3. I pee on blankets or towels when I am left alone in the house. I will not tell you why I do this and nothing my mother does can make me stop. I just do it. That is why I have to stay in the kitchen when I am left alone.
4. I sleep between my parents in the big bed.
5. I do not eat people food unless it drops on the floor accidentally.
6. I do get to lick ice cream bowls. This is the only exception to #5.
7. Ok, sometimes Mom gives me bits of her apple. But that's it.
8. Ok, cheese. I know the sound of the cheese drawer and take my medicine in cheese, when I take medicine, so I do get cheese occasionally. But that's it.
9. I have a best friend names Hershey. He lives far away in Richmond, Virginia. Fortunately he comes to visit me pretty often. I let Hershey win when we are together. It's just not worth it to me to try to win. That makes him alpha dog. I don't care if he is alpha dog.

10. I tinkle like a girl. Hershey tinkles like a boy. We're both fixed. Go figure.
11. My Mom thinks I need a little sister. See #3.
12. I am allergic to fleas.
13. I like to take sunbaths but my house faces the wrong way and is surrounded my big trees so I have to go to my Granddaddy's house to take sunbaths.
14. I like to stick by my Mom all of the time. Dad will do. See #3.
15. My granddaddy is here visiting me. I wish he lived here all of the time because he likes to walk and he would take me for walks. He is 80 years old and walked 410 miles in 2008. My mother wishes she could say she walked 410 miles last year.
16. Come to think of it, if my granddaddy walked me, he would never walk very far. I am a slow walker. I sniff a lot. This frustrates my Mom.
17. I do not bark or scratch at the door when I need to go out. I just sit there. This makes it hard on my folks because they cannot see me when I go to the door unless they are sitting on the stairs. They just wonder where I am and go look and I am patiently waiting at the door.
18. I will not bark on command. See #17
19. My favorite trick is 'roll over'. If my folks had a video camera, I would show you.
20. I can jump on beds, even tall beds.
21. My tail has a curl in it which is wierd for dachshunds.
22. I tolerate my nails being trimmed, but I don't love it. I hate baths.
23. I love riding in the car. I especially love making nose prints on the windows.
24. I am very itchy. I have dry skin and allergies. See #12.
25. I love my Mom very much, except when she scolds me for #3.

There, that wasn't so hard.

S is for .....

2009-01-20T21:06:00.006-05:00

Hi dogfriends. It's me Copper.... the dog that almost never has anything interesting to blog about. Well, today I have something to blog about.

Roxie, Sammy and Andy, my doxie friends from Houston, have recently redone their blog and they just blogged about the letter S. I wrote to them and asked for a letter to blog about and they gave me 'F'. I am still trying to come up with some things that begin with the letter 'F' but before I do, I would like to share with you and them, something that is on my mind regarding the letter 'S.' Right now, in fact, my mother and I can only think of this one S thing. Indeed, my mother would love to stop thinking about this S thing. But before I show you the thing that is on my mind and my mother's mind, I want to show you some pictures of my house.

This is my lovely front dog yard with my white picket fence and my stone border around my flowerbed.

This is my front porch and my rose bush that is so pretty in the spring. This is where I guard my house and bark at squirrels and people that walk past my house. In fact you can see me guarding my house in the picture.

This is Mom's new dining room furniture. She had set the table for Christmas dinner.

This is my new bed .... oh, I mean my Mom's new bed. (Oh, and Dad's too.)

I show you all these pictures so that you know my Mom and Dad and I do not get the wrong idea about my Mom or Dad or my house when you see the S pictures.

My Mom is reluctantly letting me show you the S pictures. Mom and Dad found the S pictures this weekend when they went down under the house to close so vents in the crawl space under the house so that the house would stay warmer when the weather dipped into the teens, as it did this weekend. My mother who likes a clean house, beds that are made, things in their place, and decorating magazines found this thing that begins with the letter S.

Snakes skins! S is for ..... snakes and snake skins.

Mom and Dad found lots of creepy snake skins under house. They found them on the ground and on the walls of the crawl space. They did not know the creepy snakes or creepy snake skins were under the house because they don't go down there very much. And now my Mother will probably never go down there ever again.

Mom called their exterminator (yes we have one) and the exterminator recommended a trapping service that specializes in snakes. The snake man is going to come out soon and see if he can find the snakes, wake them up and send them away on a long vacation. He says he should be able to find out why they are under there and how they are getting in and make sure they don't come back. He was going to come today until it snowed.

Yes, S is also for Snow. Meeshka, I told you I had never seen snow. Well, today it snowed. None of it stuck ... but it snowed.

S ... snakes, skin, snow, stuck. That all start with S. So does sleep, which is something my Mother is not able to do very well lately because of these letter S things.

But at least now I have something to blog about.

More on squirrels....

2009-01-12T22:23:00.004-05:00

This is from Bill Kirby of the Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Ga

Quote: A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit. -- actress Sarah Jessica Parker

"Your squirrel tales continue.
I know. I know. They chew through electric power lines. They slip into our attics and leave nut collections. They bully the birds from our backyard feeders.

The latter seems to particularly provoke many of you, but that problem has also inspired solutions, which I am happy to share.

Walter Kendrick writes: "To keep squirrels out of bird feeders, I put a piece of ductlike tin material around the object. You can buy it at home improvement stores. It comes in a small roll and can be cut with tin snips. They cannot climb it."

Paul Shivers , of Waynesboro, says: "Purchase three 'joints' of stove pipe, snap it in place around the pole supporting your bird feeder, resting on the ground, and you will be rid of your squirrel problem. Be sure the feeder is located so the animals cannot jump to it from a structure or tree."

Judy Davidson writes: "We were feeding all the neighborhood squirrels from our bird feeder until my husband Jim found the 'baffle' at Wild Birds Unlimited. "The apparatus is a cylinder with one closed end that fits on the pole. The squirrels go up, reach a dead end short of the feeder, and come back down. "Most of the squirrels don't even try anymore, but occasionally we see a rookie go up and make the U-turn. I suspect the other squirrels are on nearby limbs pointing and chattering."

Joyce Quinn , of Aiken, puts it simply: "I bought a squirrel-proof bird feeder at Birds and Butterflies in Aiken."

Howard Battle apparently thinks outside the box. He suggests: "Place an old-time Slinky around the pole that holds your bird feeder and have a lot of fun watching the squirrels trying to climb the pole."

Lynn and Jim Herrmann , of Evans, say: "Take a 41/2-inch (I measured from one side of the circle to the other, which hopefully is correct as my beloved husband was out golfing when I did this) white PVC pipe and put over the bird feeder pole. "My husband lathered the bird feeder pole with Vaseline, which worked for a while and ... well, you get the picture."

Thank you all for your squirrel suggestions, but I'll leave you with another squirrel tale, as reported last week in The New York Times.

The British, The Times reports, are getting rid of squirrels by eating them.

"These days ... in farmers' markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in," the newspaper said.
There are several reasons, most importantly because there are millions of squirrels "rampaging throughout England, Scotland and Wales."

Added to the problem is that the gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century are crowding out Britain's beloved red squirrels. In 2006, an SOS group (Save Our Squirrels) began its campaign to devour the competition with its motto: "Save a red, eat a gray!"
The next thing you know, everybody's eating squirrels. Among them is Nichola Fletcher , a food writer, who held a squirrel tasting for Britain's Guild of Food Writers. She found "their lovely flavor tasted of the nuts they nibbled."

(Ms. Fletcher, I say: Keep nibbling!)"

A red letter day ....

2009-01-10T15:09:00.005-05:00

You wouldn't believe what happened to me today! What a bonanza!

Mom decided I still look very thin and so she decided to weigh me this morning. This is how she weighs me .... she picks me up and steps on her scale and then puts me down and weighs herself and then she does math. She told me I still weight 12.5 pounds and that is why I seems so skinny. So she went for a car ride (alas .. without me) and came home with a 20 pound bag of dog food ... the kind with no holes.

While she was at the pet food store she saw a full blooded male red long haired dachshund, up for adoption. Mom just happened to see him as the man brought him into the store in a kennel. He was red with black on his ears and he was a little bigger than me. Mom has been praying about a companion for me for a while so she began to wonder if maybe her unscheduled trip to the pet food store was , in fact, a divine appointment. Mom was the first person to get the ladies attention as she came into the store and she asked about him. Mom wanted to have the first opportunity to be considered to adopt the dog. The lady told Mom right away that he needed to be an only dog and that he was very dominant and would bite young children. Mom was very dissapointed because this meant she could not adopt this dog. She was startled with how forthcoming this lady was with this information and wonders who will ever adopt him? (Personally Mom feels that dog adoption people would prefer to adopt out dogs to petless married adult couples who do not work, have 20 foot tell fences, never travel or leave home for short periods of time. But that is another story.) So poor Docker, the aggressive dachshund who bites children did not get adopted to be my brother today. I hope he got another forever home.

When Mom got home, my Dad went out to the car and got it and put in in my dogfood can. In order to mix it up with the other dogfood in the can, he picked up the can and shook it and this happened.

This is not a picture of my dog food or my house. It is a picture of some other lucky dog's kitchen. My Mom did not take a picture of my food all over the floor, because she and Dad were too buy trying to CLEAN IT UP before I could eat it all!!! I was helping and was eating it as fast as I possibly could, trying to gain some of my weight back, but would they let me help? Nooooooo! I had to go in the living room while they finished. Dad said I had eaten a full dinner's worth alredyand that I'd still expect dinner tonight.

Well, of course I will!

Taking care of my house ...

2009-01-09T22:18:00.002-05:00

I guarded my house today again. Mom and Dad were at work. I chewed on a rawhide and pulled my bed out of my doghouse. I barked at a squirrel and chased him away. I napped on the loveseat. I'm glad it's bedtime. I'm tired.

I have to help alot ...

2009-01-06T23:53:00.002-05:00

My Mom is redecorating the bedroom. Yesterday she took these pictures to show Hershey's Mom and I had to help her take the pictures. I helped by getting on the bed and being in the picture. You know the pictures are more interesting because I am in them.

This is the bed. Hershey's Mom painted these pictures (over the bed) to match the pillow.

This is my 'side leg kicked out' pose.

This is my 'no rear legs at all' pose.

This is my 'What?! You called my name?' pose.

Food with holes ...

2009-01-03T23:18:00.005-05:00

My Mom went to the grocery store today and stressed over what to buy. Eggs have something called cholesterol, oatmeal has carbs and cereal has sugar. Mom does not know what to eat anymore. I don't know why but it seems like people everywhere get all stressed out in January and try to lose weight. Are your people doing that? Sometimes they even try to exercise.

A year ago at my yearly check up I weighed 16 pounds and Miss Cindy told my Mom she didn't want me to gain another ounce! Mom listened to Miss Cindy and went out and bought me some new food. The new food had smaller pieces and each piece of food had a hole it it. I ate the new food .... it was good. One day recently the boy that used to live here before I came to live here, came to visit me. He had not seen me in a long time and he said I was skin and bones. (Yes, it hurt my feelings.) He even called me "Auschwich dog" whatever that means.

This got my Mom to thinking and she decided it was time for me to go see Miss Cindy again. This time we went in the car to her office .... instead of walking next door to her house. At the office, she has this short table that you have to step on and then you have to 'stay' and then you can get off. It told Miss Cindy that I weighed 12.5 pounds. I had lost 3.5 pounds of me somewhere! My Daddy, who is good with math, said I had lost nearly 22% of me eating the food with holes in it and he needed to go on that food. Miss Cindy said I looked GREAT at first and then she said maybe Mom should give me a little more of the food with holes in it each time she feeds me.

Meanwhile, Mom went out and bought me some food with bigger pieces and no holes. I am eating it. But the boy, who was here at Christmas, still calles me Auschwich dog.

Before

After

Happy New Year ...

2008-12-31T21:42:00.002-05:00

You can stay up till midnight if you want Hershey, but I am going to bed. Goodnight. Happy New Year everydog.

Merry Christmas a little late ...

2008-12-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas dog friends. I've been too busy cleaning up things off the floor to blog. Plus, Hershey and I have spent a lot of time outside.

Yesterday my Mom got the camera out to take my picture. Well, at least I thought she was going to take my picture. This is what I found on the camera.

Hi Hershey!

Hello!! Can we come in now??? We're still out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hershey's HERE!

2008-12-21T18:25:00.006-05:00

They were right. Hershey came!! I was taking a nap on the couch in preparation for bedtime and I heard Something and I went to the door and Hershey was THERE! I'm so glad to see him. We have been busy going in and out and in and out and in and out because that is why my Mom is on vacation. I don't have any pictures of us yet. Maybe I'll get Mom to take some.

For now I will show you some pictures from my last walk to the canal. This fall my Mom took me on a flea collecting adventure ... I mean walk ... to the canal. She likes to walk there and take pictures. I walk and stand around while she takes pictures and I meet other dogs who share their fleas with me. I personally have a BIG problem with fleas. I seem to be highly allergic to them, or at least that is Mom's theory. Mom uses Frontline on me every month and it supposedly kills the fleas that bite me, but fleas make me itch something crazy and start this cycle of itchy flaky skin and scratching ... it makes me itch just THINKING about it. So Mom tries to keep them from getting on me period. This is the reason we don't go to the canal very often or go for many walks, she tells me. Ugh!

Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took that day.

I tried to introduce myself to this dog but he wouldn't talk to me. He said his tongue hurt.

No, I will NOT look at the camera Mom! I have too many other things to look at!

Please let me smell this! No, I won't jump over the wall, I promise. I wonder where these steps go anyway ....

This is a wall.

She has dozens of pictures like this. Just boring old leaves and water.

This is poison ivy. Why she did she take a picture of poison ivy? I don't know.

This is Fifi. We exchanged phone numbers.

Can we go home now, it's getting dark and I itch?

Hello dog friends ...

2008-12-19T20:23:00.003-05:00

It's me again. I haven't blogged in so long, I am sure you have all forgotten me. Me thinks my secretary is

1) too busy?

2) unispired?

3) out of ideas (isn't that the same as uninspired?)

4) depressed?

5) lonely?

6) uninterested in me?

Ok, let's go with busy and out of ideas.

These pictures were taken at my Boppie's house. I stayed with him a couple night recently while my Mom and her brothers and sisters threw him an 80th Birthday Party. Mom and Dad stayed in a hotel so I had to stay at my Boppie's house. But that is ok because he fed me breakfast AND dinner. Usually I just get dinner. It was fun.

My Mom has been thinking of quitting my blog. She has also considered changing it to a blog that she can share with me. Something like a decorating, journaling, photography, dog blog. She still hasn't decided yet.

Meanwhile, it is almost Christmas and Mom and Dad have used to word "Hershey" twice tonight. I wonder if he is coming to see me. Stay tuned and I'll let you know.

PS Please write and tell me Mom that people have wrecks occasionally. She was in a small wreck today, but is absolutely fine. Her car bumpers are not so pretty anymore, front and back. She says she is thankful no one was hurt and that it was not very bad and that she is off all next week to deal with it and that she was not at fault. But she is still sad about it.

It's those Richmond squirrels ...

2008-11-02T13:37:00.005-05:00

I interupt my blacation (that's vacation from blogging) to warn my one or two readers about suicidal terrrorist squirrels. I learned from Meeshka's post today that a whole lot of people had to slurp up warm soupy ice cream in Richmond, Virginia. Apparently, Richmond is home to more than one suicidal terrorist squirrel as evidenced by these pictures.

I recently went to Richmond and visited my best buddy Hershey and he told me about this squirrel that hung from the electrical wires near his house for three weeks. I had to show my Daddy these pictures to find out what happened to the bad squirrel. I will spare you the scientific explanation that involves phases and electricity and surges ... and will instead simplify my explaination by saying ... he shouldn't have done what he did on the wires and he got hurt really bad. I do not know if this particular squirrel caused a decrease in cool air coming out of vents or warm ice cream, but he sure did have a bad day.

The stage is not for me ...

2008-10-10T20:58:00.004-04:00

Not for me, not for me, not for me. Kennels are not for me and the stage is not for me. No, no, no, no!

This week my Mom took me to church. She works are the church and she takes me there sometimes on Fridays but this time she took me to church to be on a STAGE. The Children' s Ministry at the church was doing a skit on Wednesday night like they always do only this time it was about a girl that rescued a bunch of animals from an animal shelter that was being flooded. The wanted animals to sit in kennels on the stage while they did the skit. So my Mom took me.

Mom came home from work early and fed me and brushed me and took me up to church to be in the skit. She even stuffed peanut butter in a Kong for me to eat while I was up on stage, thinking it would make me happy. It was so exciting ... I saw all kind of children who wanted to pet me and I got treats and lots of loving and then SLAM .... I got put in a kennel and he light was in my eyes! I could see my Mom too and she WASN'T COMING TO GET ME. It was awful. I didn't even want to lick my Kong. The pretty girl that runs the skit had to come up on stage in the middle of the performance, well ... actually in the beginning of the performance ... and take me off stage because I was making such a racket yelping to get out of that kennel and off the stage and go see my Mom!! My Mom was so embarrassed she wanted to die. But not as embarrassed as a bunch of other times when she embarrassed her own self and she REALLY wanted to die.

My friend Mac was in the play too. But like the distinguished older gentleman that he is, hs sat in his kennel and just looked around and even laid down at one time and tried to take a nap. Boy did he make me look bad!! I hope I never have to go though that again but I don't think I will because my Mom is still embarrassed about it.

The skit was about DETERMINATION! The girl in the skit was determined to save all of the animals from the flood.

Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble.” No ifs, ands, or buts. You will face sickness, death, divorce, temptations, failures, rejection, peer pressure. You will have trouble that you won’t see coming. And no one is exempt. Not the young, not the old, not the good. Even Jesus had trouble. He was tempted, persecuted, beaten, crucified. He could’ve taken an easy way out, given up, and gone back to heaven. Instead, He decided it was worth it to stay and finish what He’d started. That’s what Determination is all about–deciding it’s worth it to stay and finish what you start.

Too bad Mom didn't tell me that before she put me on the stage or I might have been determined to stay up there. Determination sounds like a virtue I need to learn huh?

and This is a mouse ...

2008-09-24T18:19:00.002-04:00

on top of a frog. How cute is this picture?

This is a mole ...

2008-09-23T22:45:00.004-04:00

And this is a mole. Look at those claws! He is made for digging!

This is a vole....

2008-09-22T22:45:00.003-04:00

This is a vole. He kind of looks like a mouse only he has a shorter tail and tiny ears. At least that is what the internet says. Mom didn't know she knew what a vole was either until she say it and the word just popped into her head. It sort of looked like a mouse. It may have been a mouse. It was not in the best of shape when Mom saw it .. and it smelled vile. The vile vole. Hershey and I liked rolling on it. Too bad Mom made it go away.

I'm awake ...

2008-09-21T22:44:00.004-04:00

Sorry for that long vacation friends. Mom stays busy and uninspired to help me blog. She sometimes wonders if I have anything else to say. This is what I have been doing lately ...

Hershey came to visit me a couple of weeks ago. He brought the baby and Nixon and stayed for four days. The baby is at an awesome stage. She carries this orange snack cup around sometimes and sometimes she lays it down. A couple of times I was quick enough to grab it and I scored some cool snacks. You can see me sticking my nose in it in this picture below. She is trying to give me my kong but I know there is nothing in it!

She discovered my porch water and played in it a little and here I am licking her hands dry. ... I try to be helpful.

I let her try out my doghouse. She fits in it really well.

And here she is playing on this big rock I have in my yard and watching Hershey smell something.

After Hershey left, Mom found a dead vole in my yard. She thinks it was a vole but it could have been a mouse. It was not a mole because my Mom looked at pictures of moles and voles and mice on the internet and moles have big feet and this creature didn't. Mom says she will spare showing you intenet pictures of voles and moles because she knows you can go look at them yourself if you want to. Anyway, this vole was just laying in my yard near where Hershey and I had been "studying" and rolling around alot. Mom didn't take a picture of it because he was dead and well .... very unattractive. But she thinks Hershey may have killed it because he is quite the hunter. Mom threw the dead critter over my fence so I can't roll on him now. Isn't she mean?

Since Hershey left, Mom has been looking at adoptable doggies on the internet again. Why is it that dog people think a dog that hates kids and cats and isn't housebroken and has heartworms will make a great pet? I guess everydog deserves a good home but Mom wants just the right one if it is going to live at my house for 10 + years. I really love it when Hershey is here. He is my very best friend and if he wasn't so attached to his Mom and his baby and his Daddy, we'd invite him to come live with me. But he has an important job taking care of his family up in Virginia. He has a mailman that attacks his home six days a week and he has dogs and people that threaten to walk past his house every day. He has to keep his cat brother Nixon in line and he has to clean up all of those dropped snacks. It's a hard life.

So, I am awake and maybe Mom will post more often now.

Mom ... enough with the camera!

2008-08-30T20:33:00.002-04:00

Mom ... honestly ... I know you are trying to learn to take better pictures and your grandaughter lives far away and isn't here to take pictures of. But do you have to take pictures of me when I am sleeping? Gheesh. Go away!

This dog rocks ...

2008-08-26T22:27:00.001-04:00

I could do this. But I didn't ........ and neither did you. That's why he's in the news and we're not.

A walking squeaky toy that drops snacks ...

2008-08-24T17:39:00.001-04:00

I just want to show you why Hershey never blogs anymore. For those of you that don't know, Hershey is my bext friend. He moved far away and got a baby. Now she drops snacks and does this. Go here to find out what.

I'm still alive ...

2008-08-15T21:04:00.005-04:00

Hi dogfriends ... I am still alive. My mother has not been willing to help me blog lately... she says she has been busy .. whatever that means. I do not know what she has been busy doing because she is hardly ever home. I did see some strange blue pictures on her camera and I heard her say she is taking a photography class. This place below looks like a place I would like to go for a walk and snif things. I could walk on this path and snif all the smells.

I have started walking at night with Mom. We walk and she brings treats and I get a treat when I walk fast and don't dilly dally and snif every single leaf or flower along the way. Mom says the exercise is good for us and she does let me snif some.

I have been itching a LOT lately and so Miss Cindy tried me on some medicine that rhymes with 'fred ne zone' and it instantly made the itching go away. Because of this, Miss Cindy says I am allergic to something and I get to get cheese medicine all summer! Rock on! Mom likes it that I am not as itchy because it means she can sleep at night. Like I loved scratching all night, ugh!

Mom also made another blog for her neighborhood and it has messed up my blog alot and so she has not wanted to post with all of the neighborhood information on my blog. It as taken her a while to get it straightened out and she is not sure it is straight even yet.

So, I am still alive.

Dog saves woman from bad kangaroo ...

2008-07-19T19:48:00.003-04:00

Golly, I thought they were cute jumpy animals that carried their babies around in a convenient pocket .... but apparently they can hurt you. Read this. One again, dogs rock!

It's BIG ...

2008-07-16T19:08:00.002-04:00

My tomato plant .... Mom and Dad don't know what fertilizer they used but they think it was the wrong kind. They have lots of leaves and not very many tomatoes. It's creeping across the yard to get me. Help!

Photography 101 ...

2008-07-15T23:10:00.004-04:00

On Thursday my Mom is starting a photography class at the local college here. She is excited about it. As you can see from this picture, she desperately needs some help. She didn't get a good shot of Hershey's baby, the flash is all wrong and even worse .. I look like a zombie! So, I think it is good that she is going to a class, even though it will mean I have to rest on the couch alone for a while on Thursday nights. Maybe there will be a whole lot more pictures of me around here soon.

Meanwhile, I have little news to report from the home front except that the giant tomato plant is taking over my yard. I'll try to take some pictures myself tomorrow. My pictures are better than Mom's.

It's a tough job but somebody has to do it....

2008-07-06T22:18:00.004-04:00

You get the fruit and I get the bread. Ok, Hershey?