We got Dori when she was just a baby. I saw a picture of her litter and immediately knew she was the one. She was the third dachshund to join our family as the breed grew on us after the first two and their unique, stubborn personalities.
On the drive home, she decided to lay on my husband’s shoulder and stayed there most of the trip. She’d continue to find his shoulder to take a nap when she was just a puppy, I’m not sure when she grew out of that. In her last moments with us, she gave a quick walk around my shoulders as she had so many times in the past to show us her excitement about us holding her – it broke my heart and warmed it at the same time.
She was the first female dog we had, and it was definitely a different experience. She knew she had us wrapped and wasn’t afraid to let us know it. We had a saying in our house, “Dori do what Dori want!”, and boy did she!! When she was about 3 years old I was wearing a knit hat with a big ball on top and she was eyeballing that thing like she would have that ball one day. A few days later, I left the hat on a side table and when I came home that ball on top was destroyed!! I couldn’t even be mad about it, I just imagined how happy she must have been to have defeated that ball of yarn! She did the same thing one Christmas when we left the box of our gift wrapping supplies on the floor. We came home to bows and ribbons strewn about the living room. I still laugh about it when I see some of the ribbon rolls with bite marks in them…next season I’m sure it will bring about different feelings, but I’ll still smile knowing how much she must have enjoyed herself that day!!
Dori loved everyone and would attack them with kisses as soon as they picked her up. Her whole body would wag with happiness whenever we came home or someone came to visit. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body, but she did have lots of sass and gave better side eye than any pet or person I’ve ever met!! She learned to let us know she needed to go potty by ringing the bell, and would often ring the bell even when the doggy door was open, I swear she’d do it just to prove she had us trained!
These are the memories of Dori that we will hold with us when thinking of our baby girl, and we can only hope she met up with her brother, Max, as she loved him dearly. Rest in peace baby girl and know how much we all love you!