time to share another memoir...

 

Puppy Love

When I was pregnant with our first child my husband and I traded in my trusty 1961 Corvair, with the rusted out floor boards and ’62 top, for a brand new 1971 VW bus camper conversion.  After bunny hopping around a large open parking lot, I learned to drive its stick shift, and when we weren’t traveling that bus became my car for the next 13 years.  

During that same spring the mother of one of my students brought a basketful of miniature dachshund puppies to school for show and tell. Clever mother.  They were about two months old and adorable.  I decided then and there that we needed a puppy and convinced my husband that the free puppy (free because he didn’t have papers) was a better deal than the shotgun he had been thinking about buying.  So we got the puppy and named him Remington.  It seemed like a fair compromise to me.  

After living and traveling with Remington and our baby (both very good travelers) for a year or so, we saw an ad in the paper for a female miniature dachshund “free to a good home” and decided that Remington needed a friend.  They hit it off right away, but it wasn’t until the first night of our first camping trip with both of them that Heidi came into heat, and they figured out all about the birds and the bees with great enthusiasm.  They truly kept that bus rocking for most of one night. A little over two months later Heidi had her litter of four perfect puppies, one blonde, one black and two reddish-brown.  Continuing the name game we had started with Remington, we named them Smith, Wesson, Savage and Winchester.  Heidi was a very good mother, and the puppies thrived.  Our son was entranced of course but learned to be careful with occasional quiet growls from Heidi.  

After two months we were able to place them all in good homes.  We sold the puppies for $20 each and thought we were in the puppy business.  Coincidentally, the last puppy went to her forever home the day before I went into labor with our second child.  

Sadly, some weeks later our vet discovered that Heidi had a congenital back problem and should not have any more puppies.  So we had her spayed and she and Remington became just friends.  When I told a cousin that Heidi couldn’t have any more puppies she asked if we were going to get rid of her and get another female?  I was shocked! You don’t give away family!  We all kept living and camping together for years after, and whenever we pulled out the camping gear to start prepping for a trip, Remington would jump on Heidi’s back.   Hope sprang eternal.