Weenie

Ok, she didn't change everything, but she did help me through a very hard time.

When Boogie came into our lives was right before Thomas said we would be traveling. She was going with us at the time to keep Thomas company. Remember, we just had a Toyota at the time. But during the time Boogie came to live with us, Blanca (our white chihuahua) had puppies. She had 5: three black and white, a tan and white, and one white one. One of the black and whites didn't make it.

My ex daughter in law was moving into an apartment, and she could not take her male chihuahua. My son thought it would be great if Blanca got pregnant and we could sell puppies.

Don't do that! We had tried that years earlier with Dachsunds years earlier, and we lost money. And we told him that. Anyway, she got pregnant. There was one female I liked. I called her Beatoven, because she looked like a St. Bernard. And one I thought was kind of ugly. I took them both to show, when I had a buyer. She picked Beathoven. I thought, "What am I going to do with you?" to the other.

This was my Weenie. She was built like her daddy, Peanut. She had pencil-thin legs that looked like they would break easily. She was very tiny. When she was about six months old, she started going with us too.

She was feisty. Boogie was only two months older, so they were growing up together. When they were very young pups, Boogie had already outgrown her. I would come home from work, and want to know why Weenie had small cuts on her neck. Then I discovered Boog had cuts on her nose. Boogie was grabbing her around the neck, and she was hanging from Boogie's nose! We had to put a stop to their roughhousing.

Weenie would sit in my lap whenever we would stop. She would growl at the other pups to tell them I was hands off! When we would stop at truckstops, she would be the one that would yap at the big trucks that went by. She was always quiet, until one day, when we first got the van, she got knocked out the door by a small fan. We were parked, and a man was walking by. She jumped up, and started barking at him, like she thought he had pulled her out. We had problems with her barking after that.

We have multiple pet names for our dogs. They know them all, and they know what names go with what dogs. All our dogs have "B" names, even the ones that don't. Weenie's was "Binky." Thomas said he named her that after "Binky and the Brain." We said, that's "Pinky." My name for her was "Grasshopper." She just reminded me of one when she would stand up on her hind legs and wave her arms.

Weenie is not with us anymore. On Sept. 9, 2008, Weenie ran out under a neighbor's truck as he flew by. She knew not to be in the street. It was a cold morning, and though a usually leash the dogs even in our yard, I didn't that morning. I let them out of the van to go to the bathroom and ran to the porch to call them in. Weenie looked at me, then I saw Bengy run for the road. I heard the truck and called Thomas who was in the house. Bengy stopped, and I saw Weenie wag her tail, and drop to the ground. Thomas went to get her, and the way he held her, she looked like her neck was broken. But she didn't have a mark on her. We think she ran under the truck, and had a heart attack or died of shock. I found a picture of her later, where she was happy and playing, and she had the same expression. She died doing something she loved.

But I was heartbroken. I kept blaming myself, but people who knew her said it was bound to eventually happen. I missed her terribly. It took a while for me to bury her. I couldn't do it. And I told Thomas I couldn't move yet, and leave her there. We didn't want to live there, and I didn't want to leave her there. My daughter couldn't understand why I was so upset. She'd say, "Mom, you don't even like dogs." And later that week, she called to say that she was pregnant! I said, "If it's a girl, would you like to call her Weenie?" She said, "Mom, I am not naming my baby after your dog."