Happy Easter!

Yeah, this is late..but...delayed Happy Easter from the Easter Dachshund!

I can't feel too badly for torturing the dog with the bunny ears...this year she got kibble filled eggs.

Picnic Day: Doxie Derby 2011

It was the big day. I had been excited about this for months. A full year even.

Every year, UC Davis hosts Picnic Day, an annual event where, besides getting completely trashed, the student body gets to show off the school to alumni, parents, friends, family, etc. Each department will host fun events - grape vine giveaway (Viticulture and Enology), cockroach racing (Entomology), liquid nitrogen ice cream (Physics) for example.

Yet the event that I have ADORED and watched every single picnic day has been the Doxie Derby. Hosted by the Vet school, watching weenie dogs run full pelt (or walk off in the completely wrong direction) is one of the best things I've ever seen.

I didn't manage to enter Espresso last year, but this year, it was going down. My entire Picnic Day was planned around the Derby.

I showed up early to register and survey the field. I was a very proud Mommy of my future contestant.

Espresso is switched into her more aerodynamic racing collar and gets her game face on.

I've always known I have the best friends in the world. They have always supported not only me, but Espresso. They only showed once again how much I love them all by showing up in force to support Espresso. GO TEAM BARISTA!

The playing field is simple. Start in a box and run across the Pavilion to Mommy. However, these boxes proved to be our ultimate foe.

Espresso was actually quite happy and content even as the crowd swelled and grew noisy. However, when placed in the box, she merely stared at me through the plexi-glass front "What are you doing to me Mommy? Why am I in a box?"

Our first run of the heat, we didn't come out of the box for a long time. When we did, we scampered over to Grandpa, the closest human we knew.

Second run of the heat. Same delay at the box. I had given up on having a racing Doxie.

But Espresso never fails to win my heart. She may have started late. But damn when she finally saw me, Grandma, and Auntie Jen, did she run.

Check out my facebook for the video of her amazing fun.

This was a victory in my book.

I don't think I've ever seen Espresso be more tired than she was after Picnic Day. We had lots of nice rests on the way back to the car at the end of the day.

Espresso enjoyed her victory with some very well deserved rolling in the grass.

It was the perfect Picnic Day.

Facing Facts

I love Espresso.

Really, completely, and truly.

It's not just love though. It's about so much more than love.

I, rather irresponsibly, took on a dog in college. I thought my situation would be very different than I'm facing now. But now I will be moving across the country to live alone, knowing nobody local, to pursue a career I didn't even know existed 4 years ago. Yet however many changes have occurred in my life in the four years of college, owning a dog has been one of the most dramatic, yet fulfilling. I don't need to throw away this choice just because it was looking to make life more difficult, because I wanted "a fresh start."

But I am not magical. Sometimes she spends more time in the crate, I have to miss events, I panic about how I will cope.

But it is the love of her and acceptance of responsibility that has allowed me to always make it work. I work hard to make my life work for the BOTH of us. I think of all the choices, make all the contacts, and eventually carry out a successful plan.

Because there is simply no fine dining, poppin' party, swanky apartment or flirtatious fun that even COMPARES to this:

So I am embracing my own fresh start. Or rather, our fresh start. Because Espresso will be with me through it all. My buddy. My partner in crime. My sounding-board. My significant other. My little monster. My dog.

Friday Nights

So I evidently didn't get the notice to bring work to our Friday movie nights...so instead I spend it trying to figure out how to post about Espresso's fun time with everyone.

She pretty much has free run of the place, playing with different people, attempting to eat whatever she can find, getting into nooks and crannies shes not supposed to find. You know, dachshund stuff.

Yet when all that is over, time to pass out. Even though she was trapped by Uncle Zach, Espresso seemed quite happy.

Puppy MUST BE in my Lap

Really. I have 4 essays this week. Try typing with this furry thing in your lap.

She is too damn cute and distracting!

Why I have so many typos...

Anyone who has ever chatted with me on Facebook knows well that my typing sucks. This is not aided by the fact I generally have a puppy fighting for my lap space or just generally trying to make her presence known.

I mean, Come on. How could you keep typo-free when this is what your keyboard looks like?

Summer Part 2- Napa - The Backyard

So even though my job was in full swing, David's classes ended.

I was amazingly lucky enough to find not only an amazing place to live with an amazing housemate, but it was dog-friendly.

So Espresso came up to Napa with me for the last few weeks of summer.

I felt like a terrible Mommy. She sat there shivering and shaking

for the first hours. She was terrified of her new friend, Zinny, the chocolate lab of my housemat

e.

Yet eventually she settled in just fine. In fact, she adored Napa more than Davis in some ways I think.

There was the huuuuuuuuge backyard.

That giant tree in the yard? A walnut tree. Guess who learned how to crack open walnuts and eat the nut inside?