Birthdays

Our little puppies, well not anymore, will turn 4 years old this coming week.

Imagine four years ago, we went shortly after their birth to Capena a small town just a few kilometers outside of Rome, a suburb by today's standard. Capena is famous for being in antiquity a town for wealthy Romans who had villas. Marcus Tulius Cicero (the father of lawyers) was one, Livia, Empress of Rome, mother of Tiberius and wife of Augustus, also had her famous summer villa at Prima Porta.

We had heard, I do not remember how, of the Casa degli Orsi, (the house of the bears) which is a breeding kennel for Wire hair Dachshunds and for Saint Bernard's, two very different breeds of dogs.
The kennel is owned by a well known Veterinarian Dr. Massimo B. and his wife Tiziana who have won many trophies and awards.

We loved the farm or kennel, lots of big trees and meadows and old stone farm house, there was also a big pool full of Koi fish. The two bitches who were with their litters were inside the house. The puppies being new born still had their eyes close and were very small, smaller than my hand. Tiziana picked up one little female puppy and then went over to the other box and picked up a little male. The two mothers looked alarmed and kept an eye out so that their puppies would not be harmed. When she returned them to their respective boxes the mothers licked them, checking that nothing had happened to them.

The male dogs who fathered the litter were kept outside in a pen with the other wire hair dachshunds.

With Will at the farm in Capena, left Nora and right Nicky at 6 weeks.

We decided then to adopt the two puppies and left them at the farm to return 6 weeks later to pick them up. We also had to think of a name for them, in Italy you cannot give just any name to your dog, there is a complex registration process and papers have to be filled out, it is as we say ''la bella face''. We had a contest on the internet and a friend came up with Nicky and Nora as in the 1940 movies about Nick and Nora Charles. It was explained to us that both dogs could not have names starting with the letter N, so a device was invented to go around this rule.

Our Nora before her grooming session at the Salon.

Nora close up in 2010, Rome

So our female dog was named Eleonora della Casa degli Orsi, we call her Nora for short. Her father was Hungarian, Erik Ligetfalvi, her mother was Italian and named Lucy.

Nora was born on 19 February 2009, feisty even has a new born with a hunting dog mentality, very independent.

Our Nicky, we named Fantastico Nicky, born 23 February 2009. Both parents are Hungarian, the father was Indian Catullus and his mother Filomena Catullus. Nicky is not a hunter more of a show dog  like his father, life is a catwalk, very vain, he knows he is beautiful, how can dogs know this, he knows, its his Italian side, all style.

Fantastico Nicky groomed for his birthday on Saturday 23 February.

We got proof of origin for pure bred dogs (Hungary) and registration of birth in Italy and then permits were issued by the province of Lazio (Rome) with their Health Certificates. We being the owners had to provide proof of identity and our Codice Fiscale or tax number. They also got their European Union international chip inserted when we went to bring them back to Rome.

This is by far my favourite photo of Nicky in our den at home in Rome on Via dei Villini.

The trip back to the City down Via Tiberina and then Via Salaria in our car was comical, Nora was happy to go and settled quickly, while Nicky whined all the way for 25 minutes, very unhappy to leave his family and the farm. It turns out that Nora has a large vocabulary of sounds to tell you things and will bark at you to indicate different things that she wants. While Nicky whines, he does not bark unless he is upset about something and it is usually one sharp bark. He may give a low ominous growl as a warning but that is all. He can also tell time, per example 7am is breakfast time, 17:35 is dinner time and 22:00 is bedtime, if you forget not to worry he will remind you. He is very precise about such things, we just find it strange. I suspect he as a little watch like a Piaget hidden in his kennel.

Nora and Nicky on the ancient Via Appia, posing by a funeral monument in the Spring time, Rome.

Happy Birthday to our little Dachshunds who bring so much joy to our life.

Learning a new language

We went back to school today and so did our kids, Nicky and Nora needed some guidance so we called in Bark Busters. Our teacher Marco is Austrian, we chatted on Austria and the trips we have made there in the last few years. For the lesson we explained the learning problems and what could be done about it we asked. He first explained that Dachshunds do not speak any human languages and do not understand them either despite what Walt Disney has been telling the world for decades in his movies. They guess at what we are saying but most of the time do not understand what we humans are saying. So he told us that we had to learn Dachshund, it is easier than any human language I had to learn and it can me mastered in about  3 hours with a bit of practice and bingo Nicky and Nora now understand everything we tell them. I am quite serious, it works, forget the sit and stay and come and bad boy or whatever, it does not work but start talking dog talk and well you enter another world. Nicky and Nora were astounded that we now spoke their language, you should see the faces, quite unbelieving. The teacher explained how we humans do not understand another person who does not speak our language, any tourist who has been abroad where no French or English is spoken can vouch at how difficult it was to communicate. So we learned all the stock phrases Mommy or Daddy Dachshunds would say to the young ones. We then went for a walk and today being a gorgeous day in Ottawa, blue sky and a few puffy clouds here and there and a pleasant 22C, lots of people on the Rideau Canal walking or running or bicycling and of course lots of other dogs and squirrels.

Nora whose Hungarian-Italian family background has a long list of European Hunting Champion is always willing to kill a few cats or squirrels or whatever for dinner. So we walked by 2 Squirrels who were enjoying some nutty food, usually Nora would have pounced but this time she quietly walked by and there was no fuss after I spoke to her.  Same with Nicky who goes nuts if he sees another dog or person. Now a few words in Dashchunds and bingo, we have calm and civility. So now we just have to work on other behaviour things and we should have a more harmonious household.

As for the Internet campaign around the world to save Nicky's balls on facebook, well it all depends on how well Nicky responds and stops marking his territory in the house. We will re-assess in a few weeks.