Gretchen, Strudel, Max

I lost a standard dachshund, Gretchen just a year ago this past Oct. (my birthday). She was just shy of her 20th birthday on Halloween. She died peacefully in her sleep and while I miss her (how can you not mis someone who has been a part of your world for 20 years?) I do not mourn her. She had a full life and a contented one.

We had Gretchen for a few years before I started to work again when my son was in middle school. Gretchen had trouble adjusting to my being gone and so we got her a companion...a mini-dachshund we named Strudel. She was my dog and I loved her from the moment she came into our lives. The years went by and we moved. I got a new, very demanding job. We had an adult male dachshie named Max who had belonged to the ister of a friend who moved out of the country. The "girls" tolerated his presence and he was blissfully unaware that they didn't adore him. My husband was home from work with a broken shoulder and he called me at the office to say that Strudel didn't seem well. I asked him f he thought I should come home and he said he didn't think so. I came home to a very sick little girl and a long trip to the emergency clinic. I have had dogs my whole life and I have buried them and put them down and handled emergencies of all kinds. This time I didn't handle it and they made me leave. Strudel died that night April 18th 1994 at 11:37 pm. She died alone and in pain and afraid. And, to make maters even worse I had made arrangements to take that Friday off to take her and the others in for boosters...she had nipped one of the vet assistants and because it was so close to when her shots were due, they wouldn't let me even have her body to bury. They tested it for rabies. I was pre-vet in school. I knew what they did and I knew what would be done with her body. I still have unresolved issues over her loss. She gave me so much and I let her down so completely.

Max was great. He kept me sane. He came into my life just months before I lost Strudel...and I had to have him put to sleep almost a year after her loss because he had a tumor which could not be removed and he was having seizures and was in pain.