Rainbow Riley

It's fitting that Wiener Dog Wednesday falls on April 8 because my family's first Dachshund would have been 25 today. Her name was Muggsi and she was an amazing dog. We'd never had pets before that because of my brother's allergies, but he had a bit of a health scare when he was 11 and my parents were very worried and willing to do whatever for him! What did he want? A Dachshund! So from that time on, we were a Dachshund family, and now 25 years later, we've had a total of 13 in our family!

While Muggsi was never technically my dog, in many ways it felt like she was. Only a few months after Muggsi joined our family, I moved from Canada to the U.S. in order to keep my green card. C and I had only been married for eight months! I moved to a new country, back in with my parents and brothers, and I got a job as a counselor at a residential treatment facility for adolescents. Not where I thought I would be at point in my life!

My brothers were in school all day and my parents worked all day. I worked from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am. So I had a lot of time on my own during the day and Muggsi and I did everything together. She saved me from the loneliness of missing C. Originally, the plan was for Muggsi to sleep in her bed in the mud room, but I snuck her down to sleep with me every night when I got home from work at 1:30 am and then snuck her back up to her bed at 6:00 am and no one was the wiser for months!

C and I ended up having to live apart for 4.5 years before he was allowed to live in the U.S. (yes! During the first five years of our marriage, we had to live apart for 4.5 YEARS!), and Muggsi was my best friend during that time.

In my kitchen, I've got stuffed Dachshunds on top of my cabinets to represent each of the 13 gals we've loved. I've got the five "family" dogs along one wall – Muggsi, Holly, Murphy, Carmen, and Ava.

Along another wall are our dogs, which until today, meant there were seven – Chelsea, Molly, Gunni, Maddy, Ginny, Duchess, and Sadie.

Then today, the stuffed Dachshund that represents Riley arrived. It is so perfect – rainbow, with stars on the feet, tail and ears! I'm so glad to have one for her to add to our kitchen!

Happy Tails to you!