More Like A Billion Days of Happy...

Last summer, I followed several people on Instagram who each posted a 100-day photo series to focus on things that made them happy.  Hashtags were some variation of "#100daysofhappiness" and I decided to do that this summer, using "#100daysofhappy" for my photos.  However, since I had also decided to focus solely on our dogs for this series, I also used "#100daysofdoxies" on each photo.  I started on Memorial Day, considered by most to be the unofficial start of summer, and day 100 was yesterday, September 1, which certainly seems like the beginning of autumn.  It was a lot of fun to do and I made sure I saved photos in my phone to post when I was out of town.  The quality of some photos is definitely better than others - sometimes the lighting was not ideal or I snapped the photo a split second before they moved, but one thing is for sure:  I am so happy when I look back at these photos and how they reflect our summer.

I freely admit that I could post countless photos of our dogs each day!  I posted photos of them before I started the #100daysofdoxies series and I will continue to post photos of them from here on out.  Actually, there were days within those 100 days where I posted multiple photos just because they did something amusing or were looking particularly adorable.  My Instagram name is "momofsevendogs" in case you're interested in checking them out.

In addition to posting on Instagram, I also posted these photos each day on Facebook, so you may have already seen them.  I try not to flood my friends' Facebook newsfeed with photos of my dogs, so there are definitely more photos on Instagram; one of the many, many reasons I prefer Instagram to Facebook!  That being said, if you are neither an Instagram nor Facebook user, I hope you enjoy!

This first picture is a canvas painting I just purchased from Etsy a few days ago and I love it SO much.  It's by Michael Prosper and the girl, her Dachshund, the tree, the night sky are just perfect.  It really has nothing to do with my photos series, but I had to share it since this post is all about Dachshunds!

On to the photo series...

DAYS 1 - 100

Obviously I love all 100 of these photos - some days it was rather difficult to choose only one to feature!  These dogs are so overwhelmingly loving and funny and entertaining...they keep me company during the long and sometimes tedious work of reading and researching and writing and even more importantly, are always ready to nap with me.

But without a doubt, my favorite photo is the last one.

Chelsea was an only dog for ten-and-a-half years.  She was (and continues to be!) completely spoiled and she was really not sure what to make of the new dogs when we went from one dog to five dogs in September 2009.  We continually assured her she would always be "#1" and the nickname stuck.  We call her "#1" to this very day.

When I found the bottle of Diet Coke labeled "#1" earlier in the summer, I knew immediately that I was going to keep it for the final photo with Chelsea (plus it's one of those short 12 fluid oz. bottles - very appropriate for our short dogs!).

Don't let her size (6.5 pounds!) or her age (almost 17!) fool you - she is the alpha and everyone knows it.  Queen Bee, through and through...but sweet and kind to her sisters.  We are so lucky that our four dogs love each other and get along so well, given their diverse backgrounds and experiences.  We like to believe that the cure for all of their ills and misfortunes was very simple:  love.  And I hope that comes through in these photos.

Happy Tails to you!