Hello Friends! Annie, thanks for the heads up about my birthday thread:-) It's been insane here for a long time, I'm sorry I've been missing in action. I miss you all. I'm working in the office so much this summer, there hasn't been much time to do all the fun stuff I enjoyed, like chatting with my forum pals. The boys start school on Monday! Way too soon, and they are so not ready. Sam will be an 8th grader (yikes!), and Ben is going into 4th. All your birthday wishes really made my day! I promise to stay in touch better, my boss (who's my husband:-) will just have to understand that it's more important for me to check the cooking forum than schedule hearings and draft pleadings, etc. Well, isn't it??? XXXXX DONNA

lily, you will never regret the time you have with your Dachshund. And there are no health guarantees with any breed. It is just unfortunate that Dachshunds are so prone to this horrible back/neck disc problem. We used to have a Beagle - we adopted our Beagle at 7. He lived to be just shy of 20. He found our cat - the brilliant one - and she was pregnant. So we had quite the houseful. After our Beagle died, our cat was miserable. Our vet told us that she had a hound boarded at the clinic - he had been rescued by a couple who the Humane Society would contact should things look grim - and our guy was on the list. But this couple already had 8 dogs at home so couldn't take him in. He lived at the vet's for 6 months - and was placed in 2 homes during that time - but with people who didn't realize that some Dachshunds are really Alpha so he was returned. The vets were about to keep him as a clinic dog (he did like to supervise them and the other pets) when our Beagle died. The vets gave us a week to mourn and then contacted us and we met our Dachshund. The vet did use the word "hound" so we were kind of shocked when out came this hot looking, auburn, gorgeous Dachshund. He surveyed the room and the other waiting patients and then looked me in the eye and demanded to be picked up. Love at first sight. Of course the vet had to contact the couple who had rescued him and they came over a few days later to inspect us - we were both having fits that we would fail the inspection. It was funny, the woman was so much like me - and we were both born in Aug. They brought our pup with them and immediately saw the bond. So he became ours. So 4 homes by the age of 1. He died on Sept. 13, 1997 at 11:30 a.m. - but who is keeping count?! The dog of my life. During his time with us we adopted other Dachshunds rescued through this couple which is how we ended up with so many. Our last guy - very similar to our first - was also Alpha, similar body type but did not do as well with the surgery. So of course we can't go through it again. Yet other people have Dachshunds for 18 years with no issues. Our last guy had 2 girlfriends - sisters - who would have little hissy fits over him in the vet's waiting room. He liked both of them, but he did kind of prefer one over the other. Just like people! I saw these girls last year at the vets - I so wish our guy could have been there - they missed him to. I really hope that you will have many years of health and happiness with your Dachshund and be spared the horrors of the back issues. I am not at all surprised that your Dachshund can keep up with you on your walks since they are going concerns and very stoical. You should take pride that a Dachshund has decided to live happily with you because an Alpha Dachshund is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. But I love feisty, in your face, smart dogs - it probably helps that they really love me too otherwise I might look at things a little differently.

I hope that you're having a great day with relatives and/or friends ... ... and good wishes for a fine year ahead. May it be memorable for all of the right reasons. ole joyful

That quiz is cool. But it says that I sound like North Central. Don't know about that! When dh lived in NC the people there thought he was from Virginia. Apparently our Cdn accent sounds like Virginians....