GOBIBLOG #14

Guten Tag Meinen Freunden!

That’s how you greet friends in Austrian – or so I’m told anyway. Austrians also say “Gruss Gott,” but I haven’t a clue what that means. I hope it isn’t dirty! So why am I speaking Austrian? Well, without asking my advice, Mom decided on the spur of the moment to take a mini-vacation from the February winter at home and fly to Vienna. Had she asked me, I’d have warned her that it would probably be very cold there just like it is here so why bother to go all that way to be miserable – but would she have listened to me even if I had been given the opportunity to share my wisdom? Doubtful. She never does! Anyway, off she went leaving us to keep the household together. It was an eventful time here while she was gone – but more about that later.

Mom’s choice of Austria as a vacation site caused another of my rare episodes of dachshund linguistic and geographic malapropism. Remember my confusion a year ago about Thailand which I had initially understood to be Tie Land? Well, initially, I had it in my head that Austria was the country that has kangaroos and koala bears – and maybe even elephants although I’m not sure about that. I even bragged to Sluggers the Ditz and Bruiser the Dimwit about my expertise about all things Austrian. I told them that they could come to me with any questions they might have, and I’d know the answer. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered while I was surfing the ‘net on Mom’s laptop late one night that the place I was thinking of was Australia, not Austria. Now don’t they sound alike? Luckily, the Ditz and the Dimwit don’t know about that intellectual gaffe so I’d appreciate it if you don’t rat me out. Saving face and all that. (A note – it takes a lot of dexterity for us dachshunds to operate laptops because we don’t have laps, but of course, I manage adroitly.)

As I always do, I asked Mom to bring me home an elephant from her trip. (I never stop trying to satisfy my obsession, do I?). She did look at me rather strangely, but she agreed to try. Much to her surprise, she found one! Even though he is bronze and not quite life sized, she took a picture of him for me which I’ve attached to this Blog. He stands guard outside the Museum of Natural History (or something like that) in the Vienna City Center. I wish he were real – and I wish she’d brought the whole statue back, but I’ll take what I can get. Isn’t he cute?

The very next day after taking that elephant picture, Mom and her friend went back to revisit the elephant, and there was a huge rally going on celebrating Kosovo’s independence. Mom said there were tons of armed and helmeted policemen in vans surrounding the demonstration, and that it was kind of scary. The crowd was really noisy, and she wished I’d been there to protect her. She and her friend quickly got out of the area!

She did see two or three dachshunds in Vienna, but I’m sure none of them were as handsome or smart as I am! Dachshunds are allowed to ride streetcars in Vienna. I’ve never ridden on a streetcar, but it sounds like fun. In fact, I don’t even know what a streetcar is. The only other dog she remarked about was the explosive detecting German Shepherd she met in the Vienna airport when she was waiting to get on the plane to come home. She said he seemed much more interested in his chew toy than in looking for bombs. She took a picture of him, but it’s not very good. I would make a most excellent bomb sniffing dog if I do say so myself. My fierceness would stop any terrorist in his tracks. Maybe I’ll apply for a job. I wonder what bomb sniffers get paid – and do they get regular cookie breaks? That would be an important consideration.

When Mom got home, I found out that Vienna is known over there as “Wien,” and people who live there are called “Wieners.” Now, as you know, some people rudely refer to dachshunds as “Wiener Dogs” because our distinctive physiques remind them of hot dogs. Putting two and two together, with this bit of knowledge, It dawned on me why Mom feels an attraction for that city! I knew it had to be more than the stupid leather shorts they wear or those corny Oom Pah bands! I much prefer soft rock or opera to any music where they play a tuba!

While Mom was gone, lots of stuff happened here. It’s a good thing I was on board to coordinate everyone. The weather was really, really bad. One day, we had tons of rain and temperature in the high 40’s, but that night, it went below zero so all the water on the ground froze and made ice. Dogs get along pretty well on ice, but horses often have a problem with it. Mom’s 32 year old horse, Melanie, who had quite a career as a jumper, an eventer and a fox hunter and had lived here a very long time, fell down on the ice one morning and couldn’t get up. The vet came, and we were really sad to learn that after he came, she got dead. They called Mom in Austria, and she was sad too. The up side is that Mom doesn’t have to go out to the barn to feed anymore, but she says she misses Melanie a lot and can’t stop looking up the road at the barn expecting to see her. We try to take her mind off it by being extra good and doing cuter than normal things to amuse her. To make matters worse, a week after she got home, Steven, her noisy cockatiel who could only sing one very boring song, also got dead. I have quite a history of helping house birds to get dead from my younger days,, but I had nothing at all to do with this. Mom told me she felt like the Angel of Death. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by that, but I do know it had her worried and unhappy.

I heard some birds singing outside today, and the temperature is actually fairly comfortable so maybe we will get spring pretty soon even though there is still about a foot of snow on the ground. Until Mom can get outside and do things, she spends her day banging away on our computer writing letters to get money for Maui Jim and the AEC’s and finishing some house projects. She said she’s very bored with being inside and wants to start doing neat stuff like mowing the cross country course. We love having her here all day, but it will also be nice to spend more time in our yards sunbathing and yapping at the Country Club.I’m sure they miss our good voices!

I’ll try to have more AEC news in the next Blog, but now I think everyone is just trying to get through winter as best they can.

Lots of love,

Gobi