Study with a 'Spresso

Everything I need to knock out my Winery Engineering homework a few days early:

Calculator

Pencil

Notepad

Laptop with problem sets on screen

Freshly brewed Peet's coffee

Equation sheet

...Puppy?

Espresso nested under my equations sheet. That is her "What? You are sitting on my blankets."

As you can see, Espresso is going to be very helpful when studying for finals in a week.

Dental Surgery

Espresso apparently really does take after me. I have had my fair share of dental problems in my life, one of which has included a baby tooth that never fell out.

Espresso had one of her baby teeth never fall out. Instead the adult tooth merely grew in front of the other tooth. Our vet just advised waiting to see if it ever fell out...which of course it never did. Which means I got the privilege of paying a pretty penny to have to removed before it started to damage the nerve of the adjacent adult tooth.

So I dropped Espresso off at 8am and was a nervous Mommy all day. I finally heard from the vet around 3 pm that she had woken up and the surgery was routine. I finally got to go pick up my de-toothed, drugged puppy in the evening.

I took her to In N Out as a reward and to satiate my Mommy guilt. She stared at me as I ate my Animal-style cheeseburger with extra lettuce - the extra lettuce and a few bits of burger being specifically saved for my brave little patient.

In the tube is the tooth that cost me $500. Apparently it is about half the length it should have been. After doing an cautionary X-ray, the vet found out everything else had been reabsorbed by the body. It was barely hanging in there. Good thing I didn't wait any longer.

You can see the single sitch left from where they removed the baby tooth. Now only the healthy adult tooth remains. And a shiny adult tooth at that since I had to pay for a teeth cle

aning.

She also partially pulled out her IV, so she had a very fatty little leg for the evening. You can see from the picture, it was probably twice the diamete

r of normal. It kinda jiggled as she walked, and just added to the general pathetic and sad look she had.

A good part of the evening was spent carefully watching her to make sure she didn't chew at the vet wrap covering up where the IV had been.

The only advantage of this entire experience is Mom

my felt guilted into serving canned wet food for dinner. Espresso LOVES wet food, and I went and bought a few cans before I knew the vet said it wouldn't be necessary.

I was actually quite proud of Espresso- she can be a bit of a drama queen ("Well, she is a dachshund" was a vet tech's response to that). But not only was she complimented for being so so soft and apparently was cuddled by the techs for most the day, she came back with a full report of good behavior.

Since she had most the day to recover, Espresso wasn't TOO drugged out. But I was warned her depth perception would be off and I could tell she was kinda out of it. And with as much puppy huffing as I do, I can definitively tell you she even *smelled* off.

That evening we mostly just cozied up for a girls night. Espresso passed out, finally safe and sound at home.

Cinco de Drinko! Drinko de Mayo!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!!!

As any proper college student, I celebrated with Corona with lime.

When I was recently in San Jose, I ran across this amazing pet store in the mall that sold the cutest little toys for a wino like myself...

They had a stuff bottle of "Barkcardi" rum, "Puptron" tequila, "Barksolut" vodka and of course...

A Grrrrona...complete with stuffed lime.

Like puppy like Mamma, that is the "Don't even think about touching my drink" look.

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.