Oh, Christmas Tree!

Frankie Mae doesn't usually spend too much time in this room. Unless an irresistible sun patch happens across the floor.

Since the tree has been up, though, she's been hanging out in there a lot. She drags her toys in there and just cozies up.

"I wonder which ones are for me!"

Brrrrr!

Temperatures have dipped into the 50's here. Frankie (aka: the Soupster) isn't happy about it at all. She dislikes the leather couch, but when I pulled out the Christmassy fleece blanket, she couldn't resist. I know she misses stretching out in front of the fireplace in our house in Washington.

Evolution of a Nickname

"I like to play with the dollhouse, too!"

"What name will you call me today?"

"It's Miss Sill-Merica!"

Poor Frankie. I wonder if she has an identity crisis. She has so many names.

First, she was Francesca Mae Furter.

This became Frankie, obviously.

Then Frankie Mae.

Then Miss Frankie, and Silly Miss.

Then we called her Sill, short for Silly Miss.

Then, she was (and still is) Little Sill.

Sill became the Sillionaire or the Sillionator.

The, because she's so pretty she was Miss Sill-Merica. Sometimes with the song. "Theere she isssss! Miiisss Sill-Meeerrrrica!"

Next, The Great Sill-Dini.

That became Super Sill (it's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPER SILL!)

Somehow, from that we got Soup.

She was Silly Soup, and now just Soupy. Or Soup-de-doop.

Most recently, she is the Soupster, or Soup Spoon, which is from me but doesn't appear to be catching on with the rest of the family.

Does anyone else do this with their dogs? When I call her to come, it's with her real(ish) name, Frankie. Or Frankie Mae if she's in trouble. Or "Francesca Mae Furter James Larson Edward!" encompassing a few of the middle names of our family. LOL!!! I didn't realize how funny this was until I was writing it out! :)

Please, let me know if you have any nicknames for your dogs!

Adoption Story - Happy Thanksgiving!

A couple of years ago, my mom and dad wanted to have another baby. For some reason, it wasn't working and they had to go to doctors. This process was taking years. During this time, my mom fell in love with Dachshunds and wanted one. Dad said we should wait because any time now they would get pregnant and wouldn't want a baby and a puppy at the same time...

Eventually, my mom got mad at all of the things they were putting on hold while waiting for the baby that wasn't coming and daddy told her they could get a Dachshund!

My mom didn't know much about choosing a dog from a breeder because they had always gotten their dogs from the pound until me. But, she found a woman with dachshunds for sale and she seemed really nice. They went up to visit her and my mom was alarmed by the state of the garage where we were kept. It was clean, but there were a lot of dogs there and my mom got the impression this was only a business for that woman. She wanted to go! But, then dad spotted me. I was the smallest dog there and was avoiding all of the other dogs and people. They picked me up and the woman put a microchip in me (OUCH!) and they took me home.
That first picture is me in my "going home" box!
After a couple of days, I started to get really sick. My mom was in a panic. She took me to the vet who basically told her I was a goner. She called the breeder, who told her to bring me back and pick out another dog!!!! My mom said she KNEW they would do something awful with me and besides, she loved me too much already to let me go. She found another vet who got me all better.

Here I am resting up with my daddy!

A couple of months after they got me, guess what happened? My mom started to feel really sick and it turned out she was going to have a baby! Can you believe that? Everyone said it was my puppy influence that made all the difference!

What do we have here?

Oh, were you trying to take a picture of the baby or me?

Mom calls us "the girls." :)

My parents learned a lot from their experiences picking me out and purchasing me. First of all, mom said she will never buy another dog from a breeder. And she also said no more puppies. Although she wants tons of dachshunds, she will only take adult dogs and only from a rescue organization. There are too many dogs who need homes.

That's my story! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! xoxo Frankie Mae

Hi, all!

Hi! How is everyone? I have missed a lot lately because my mom hasn't been on the computer. She promises to be better about it - it's just that our house is so crazy right now!

Mom tells me I'm lucky I'm not a person so I don't have to worry about any of it but I don't know what she means, since I'm the same as everyone else in this house! And I know when something is wrong - I circle around mom and follow her closer than usual when she's upset.

We can't wait for the holiday season! It's our favorite time of the year. Mom has been buying some decorations and her closet is filling slowly with bags of mysterious things! This is the time of year it's strictly OFF LIMITS! I can't wait for her to get my stocking out!

Frankie Furter is having people post their adoption stories on Thanksgiving Day. . . I wasn't technically a rescue. My parents (who have since learned better) had to pay for me but I'm going to write about it anyway. They did rescue me from a terrible situation!

love to you all! xoxo Frankie Mae

Snuggle Time!

Oh, someone is trying to get their picture taken and they forgot to invite me.

Is everyone smiling? Are we ready to take it?

Cheese!

Kiss attack!

Oh, someone else needs a kiss!

Just me and my favorite person. :)

Christmas Un-Present

Guess what my dad said yesterday? That maybe I would get my tooth pulled out for a Christmas present. I do not find that very funny. I was hoping for a stocking full of bully sticks and a new blankie. . . he had better be kidding. Grrrrrrr -

**Note from Mom**
Frankie does have a tooth in the back that needs pulling but he was kidding. Poor Frankie. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Relaxing

I have a new place I like to lay.

It's between the couch and the side table in our family room.

My mom moved a bed and blankets there for me and she put the bed on some cushions so I am up higher like the Princess and the Pea! I love it.

Laid up again!

I had oral surgery yesterday - that isn't fun. Miss Frankie is taking good care of me. It never ceases to amaze me how in tuned she is to me - when I got home and laid down to sleep off my anesthesia, she was pawing at the bed. I picked her up and she sniffed all around my mouth and head, sniffed at the tape on my arm where my iv was and curled up next to me to sleep. It was so sweet. I love that dog! She means the world to me! :)

Wordless Wednesday - hee hee hee

The good life.

Ahhhh - I'm still living the good life! I think I would sleep better if Mom would actually switch beds with me. She takes up too much room. I want the big bed all to myself...

Shhhhhh!

Guess what? Dad's gone at a golf tournament so mom is letting me sleep in the *big bed* and it is SO fun! She boxes me away from the edge of the bed with pillows, though. I think she's afraid I'll fall and hurt myself in the middle of the night.

Don't tell dad! ;)

THANK YOU, RUBY & PENNY!

You will just never guess who got some mail today! It's my first time ever getting my very own mail!

Oh! It's a Wubba from Ruby and Penny!!!!!!!! I was so excited - I snatched it away as soon as my mom squeaked it for me and she had to chase me to take the tags off. Look at that gorgeous picture of Ruby and Penny.

Catch me if you can!

Oh, I love my Wubba. You can't really see it well here, but it has my name stitched on one side! Then, you flip it over and it says, "Love Ruby & Penny." Oh, this has been so exciting.

Wheeee! I played so hard with it - and for the first time ever, I didn't care that the vacuum was on upstairs! :) Usually, I hide until it's put away.

I played until I couldn't play any more. But, I still didn't want my mom to move my new toy at all!

Maybe if I spoon it, she'll get the hint!

Thank you so much, Ruby and Penny! You made this dog's day!

Sad

I'm quite sad. My grandma was here this weekend and I loooooooove her so!

But, she had to go home.

I'm spending my day staring sadly at my mommy. Between you and me, I think it's working. It's getting me lots and lots of lap time. :)

Grrrrrrr-lawnmower-rrrrrrrr

As the top dog around here, one of my many jobs is to bark at the lawn mower. My people know better than to try and sneak out to mow our yard. I MUST be able to run a few circles around the lawn mower, just so it knows I'm keeping an eye out! It's very loud, though.

I like to get my ferocious barks in and then I let my dad get the job done. I know he'll be nice and safe, thanks to me!

:) Frankie

Frankie in the Flowers

We are putting these pictures in for Mona and her mommy, who wanted some snaps of Frankie in the flowers. It was a riot trying to take these.


Here, my husband is holding Frankie and I am taking the pictures. He did not seem to understand that I wanted her to look nice and natural in the pictures, and instead, crammed her IN the plant. She was a good sport.

Frankie is not looking amused.

I thought I'd try both holding her and taking the photo.

Oops.

Not an easy task.

Ta-da! I think this is the only decent one in the bunch! These orangey-red flowers grow along our pool fence. Frankie was a trooper for her photo session. My husband says she isn't the most photogenic dog ever (true), and I actually deleted about twice as many pictures as I saved! lol.

More about Paris. . .

Because I can't stand it and I want to go back, I am writing another post about Paris. I promise this will be the last one! :)

Bonjour! Versailles.

My husband hid a little ceramic doggie in my luggage! We hide this dog in each other's stuff all the time. One time, I wrapped it in saran wrap and put it in a sandwich in his lunch. I also sent it to Iraq when he was deployed. Anyway, we are weird like that. So, we took the doggie all around with us! Here, he had his own train ticket to Versailles.

Sitting on my knee on the Metro.

A kitty (very pregnant!) we ran in to. She was very lovey dovey!

Look! The doggie went to Musee d'Orsay! This is a statue of Napoleon. See the doggie on the bottom corner?

Ooh! Time to go home! Nearly to Seattle (flew nonstop from Paris)!

I'm glad I had a little stand in for Frankie while I was gone! One older couple we saw walking with their old, gray dachshund was so sweet. They spoke no English and we spoke horrific French, but they knew the word Dachshund and immediately stopped so we could fawn over their dog. She was very sweet! I still can't believe how many Dachshund owners we saw. It made me so happy!