Dixie's Story

Sweet, sweet, sweet Dixie. What an absolute doll this girl is.

A few weeks ago, Jeff Tarpley Rescue was letting folks know there was a senior dachshund in Tyler who needed to get into rescue/foster. Guesstimates on her age are about 11 (kind of hard to get a good feel when there are no teeth to work with, but you can see from the photos she's white).

Since we'd lost Padre, our chocolate long senior foster, the week before, we had a space available. We didn't know at the time we were to shortly lose my last smooth standard dachshund that I'd bred, but that was a few days in the future, and Dixie needed help.

As it turned out, she wasn't in a shelter in Tyler, but at a vet clinic where a Dachshund rescue angel worked, Denise Tolar Wilson. Between her and Jeff, this little girl was going to get out, so after waiting a few days for some transport issues to resolve, Dixie was coming to Waco...there's a photo in her Photobucket album of her standing up looking out the car window. This girl was ready to hit the road!

As I understand it, Dixie (who was known as Little Miss at the time) had either been abandoned in or gotten out and wandered into an upper class Tyler neighborhood. She was taken in and, rather than be turned into a shelter there, she was taken to a veterinary clinic.

She was actually in pretty good shape, but the clinic very kindly removed her remaining teeth, gave her antibiotics for a mouth infection, tested her for heartworms (she was negative), determined she'd been spayed and updated her vaccines.

So Miss Dixie was in good shape...maybe a bit too good since she weighed 15.8 pounds on the day she left the clinic and she probably should come in at around 12-13 pounds. But her coat looked good. She was healthy and OHMIGOD sweet? Very!

This girl is house broken, just about crate trained (in just 10 days), loves to give kisses - even if most of them are what I call "air kisses" since her tongue flops around because she has no teeth - loves attention, gets along great with other dogs and pretty much just ignores cats. No idea how she is around children since there aren't any here, but if the child is older and respectful of dogs, I don't see why she wouldn't do well. This girl has a very sound temperament.

I honestly don't think I've ever brought in a foster who fit in easier into the pack hierarchy and didn't need some work. Other than taking some weight off her, Dixie is just about perfect. And even without teeth, if her dry food is soaked for a minute in hot water, she can eat that just fine.

She should be available for adoption through ATDR. As I write this, I'm not sure if she's out on their website yet or not; I just sent the information to them today about her.

Anyway, as much as I would hate to see her leave, I will say she's easily as adoptable as a couple of seniors we fostered for the shelter here in Waco who were adopted.