A spunky new addition to the family ~ November 2004

David Heiller

It really wasn’t fair, the way Randi Vick hood-winked me.

She had come to The Argus on Monday, October 11, beaming about a dog that one of her home health care clients needed to give away.

David and Rosie and her cauliflower. Rosie was truly an omnivore

“It’s a miniature dachshund,” Randi said. That caught my ear. My wife, Cindy, and I had been talking just the day before about getting that very breed of dog. My sister Kathy has one that we like, named Willie, and some friends from Duluth who had just visited us have one too, named Peanuts. Miniature dachshunds seem to lend themselves to spunky names like Willie and Peanuts.

So I told Randi to find out more about the dog, how old she was, what she was like, that kind of thing. Randi said yes, she’d do that on Friday, and let me know more.

I told Cindy about it that night. We agreed again that it wouldn’t be a bad idea. We already have two dogs, but one, MacKenzie, is 11-1/2 years old, and is showing her age.

Then we forgot about our dachshund dream until Friday, when Randi pulled out her bag of tricks.

See, Randi didn’t report back ON the dog, she reported back WITH the dog.

Our household of doggies was always
full of delights and surprises.

Her name was Zoey. She had long black hair, which surprised everyone at the office. Most dachshunds are brown with short hair.

Then Zoey pulled out her own bag of tricks. She rolled on her back, she jumped onto laps. She gave everyone a steady, friendly stare, and snuck in a lick or two.

Rosie, queen of the manor.

She ran through the office on legs too short under a body too long. Her tail never stopped wagging. We could not help but smile.

“See why I took her?” Randi asked. It was obvious. This was a special little dog, one that nuzzled into the hearts of four fine newspaper women in about 30 seconds.

Of course, I was not about to melt that easily. It took me at least a minute.

My co-workers all wanted Zoey. Maybe that was one of Randi’s ideas too. But Dawn has a dog, and one is all she can handle. Diana couldn’t take another dog either. Robin’s cat would not allow a canine in the house, even though Robin was so fond of Zoey that she started calling her Stinky Pants, which is the highest of compliments from Robin. Jane said dogs were not allowed inside the Palen farm house.

Rosie

So I took Zoey home that night. First I introduced her to our two dogs. They were not as impressed as I was. I didn’t expect much more though. Dog friendships take a while to develop, that’s the way it ought to be.

Zoey won Cindy over in record time when they met that night. Cindy was slightly surprised—bringing home a dog is not something I do every day, or even every decade. I think I scored some hard-earned husband points on that one.

Cindy’s brother has a dog named Zoey, so we decided to rename her. She is now officially Rosie. That name seemed to jump out as a good one. It has lots of spunk, like Rosie the Riveter, and Rosie Deters, and Rosie Papenfuss.

I know our Rosie will be a good addition to the household. She followed me around as I did chores on Sunday, and found two dead mice and a dead bird in the garage. She proudly brought them to me. I managed to take them from her, but not after a good tug of war. You have to like a dog that doesn’t give up her trophies.

No, it wasn’t fair, the way Randi Vick hood-winked me. But I’m glad she did, and so are Cindy and Rosie.

This song is a must hear for all lovers of dogs, especially of the sausage variety...

Dixie the Tiny Dog by Peter Himmelman

Cynthia's note: After this column was published, the original owner stopped in to see David at the Argus. He told him that The ORIGINAL name of the dog was ROSIE, but the grand-kids insisted it should be Zoey...