Letters in the (e)Mail

In an earlier posting, I answered a letter from reader in Namibia, who had questions about a female puppy she was about to adopt. The doggie’s name was to be Bianca. Well there’s been a bit of a change as you will see from the following message, just received:

DEAR TRIXIE,

Well, I have not slept much for the past week, but the good news is that she is very confident, eats like a little piggy and has adjusted well. And of course, I think she is brilliant. Have decided to amend her name a bit, she is truly a diva (was the dominant female in her litter) and so now, rather than Bianca Lulu, her name is Diva Bianca!

Love, Diane

DEAR DIANE,

What I have to say to you can be summed up in two words: Viva Diva!

Love to you both, Trixie

Meanwhile I’ve received another letter from my public, this one on a more weighty matter. It was sent by Ann McMullan, a member of the Wednesday Walkie Talkies. Since I walk with Ann almost every week I’m aware of her concern with the drop out problem and of her involvement in an organization that is addressing the problem. I’m flattered that she would pose the question to me, despite the fact that I’ve never been to doggie school. (Of course I do have beaucoup street smarts.)

DEAR TRIXIE,

“Why in the world would a teenager drop out of high school? Isn’t that remembered as a carefree and happy time of life?”

Your walking buddy, Ann

DEAR ANN,

I’m guessing that in your day, high school was more a time of carefree fun. It’s a different story today with peer pressure on everything from drugs to gangs and with any number of other issues ranging from poverty to poor parenting to teen-age pregnancy.

Fortunately, the very organization you are involved with, Communities in Schools, is helping meet the challenge of keeping young people in school by connecting schools with needed community resources. And I know a way folks can help right now. They can Stuff the Bus with school supplies for at-risk students on August 6 at San Antonio HEB stores from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Your friend, Trixie

A Real Royal Flush

Once you’re famous you’re bound to turn up in a museum exhibit. My turn came today, when my image went onto the walls of the famed Toilet Seat Art Museum. Featured on the Today Show and listed as one of Texas’s ten best offbeat museums (one has to wonder what the ten worst are), the museum features more than 900 decorated toilet seats. They cover the walls, interior partitions—even the doors--of a corrugated tin two-car garage behind a cottage in Alamo Heights.

The quirky collection is the really out-there vision of Barney Smith, 89. In January the Wednesday Walkie Talkies visited his museum while walking in the neighborhood. They oohed and ahhed over seats adorned with everything from wasp nests to Boy Scout patches to marbles to swizzle sticks.

My mistress got so carried away that she suggested that the prolific Mr. Smith create a seat in the honor of the WWTs. He agreed on the condition that we give him a logo to work from. Lyn Belisle, a member of the group who is an artist, agreed to create a logo with me as its centerpiece, since I'm the group's de facto mascot.

Today, six ladies walked to the museum to sign the newly competed seat with a pen. I can’t write my name, so I proffered my paw, which artist Lyn outlined next to the signatures. Mr. Smith will engrave over the signatures with a dremel tool, add photographs and, if Mary can bear to part with it, glue on one of my collars. So there you have it. My visage is in a museum for all to see.

The portrait as drawn by Mr. Smith is not what I'd call a spitting image. In fact, it looks weirdly wolf-like to me. But that's OK, because there's another dog that occasionally walks with us, named J.D. (short for "just dog.") who might just think that's HIS picture. No hard feelings that way.

I’m not the only one happy to be memorialized. Logo designer Lyn Belisle emailed the group, “I have always wanted to have my art in a museum. It’s a dream come true, a real royal flush.” I couldn’t have said it better.

Now to another subject. I went with my master and mistress to Austin over the weekend and had a fine time checking in with their son Maverick’s dog, Chigurh, and with the chickens. Sadly, there are only two now. Maverick discovered the third one stretched out in the enclosure last week with no sign of sickness or injury. The only thing he could figure was that she died in childbirth as she had a habit of laying extra large double-yoked eggs.

I didn’t get to participate in the high point of the trip, which was riding in a little Smart Car. The city of Austin has a pilot program called Car2go, in which people who sign up can use the cars wherever they find them and drop them wherever they want around town. Cars can be located using an iPhone. Cost of operation is 35 cents a minute, half the cost of a taxi. The cars are tiny but so am I, so I do hope Mary and Maverick will take me with them next time they decide to take a spin. If I'm museum material, surely I'm worthy of a ride in a Smart Car.

Dispensing Doggie Advice

As my fame grows, I’m getting mail from as far away as Namibia. I’m sharing this letter from Dr. Diane Ashton--a professor at the University of Namibia whom my masters and mistress met traveling in Ethiopia--with my response, accompanied by her photos.

DEAR TRIXIE, (or should I now address you as the Duchess?)

I am writing to you especially to tell you some very good news. You are so adorable in all of your photos with Mary, and I realized small dogs can be great. I have never had a small dog before (only labs and goldens) but now, because of you, I am getting a small dog. Unfortunately, there are no chihuahuas in Southern Africa, so I am getting the next best breed!

My friend has a gorgeous long-haired dachshund who just had a litter of puppies - 3 females and 3 males! I get the pick of the females. They are now almost 2 weeks old. Trixie dear, do you have any advice about how to select the perfect puppy from the 3 females? I want her to be as special as you are! Trixie, what are your favorite foods?

The only bad news is that I won't be traveling anywhere for at least 6 months because I don't want to leave the puppy alone. When she is more grown up, then I can go back to having more adventures. I am very, very busy at the university, so it looks like I will be staying here in Namibia for another 2-3 years. It seems that I will have to wait until I am Medicare eligible before I can move back to the USA!

Diane

DEAR DIANE, (Given that I’m now a duchess, you can address me as "Your Grace.")

I'm delighted to hear you are adopting a dog. You are so right to have selected a small one. Because of my size I’m allowed to sit in my mistress' lap and sleep in her bed. And small children really relate to me.

As to choosing from the litter: I suggest you go for personality rather than looks. (Too bad men don't select their mates that way). Since you’re getting a female you can’t lose looks-wise. My favorite foods are people foods like cooked chicken, beef--even pasta. I also like cheese, but my mistress doesn't let me have much of that because she thinks it's too rich. Instead she serves me boring but healthy "Lean Dog Formula" dry food from Whole Foods Market.

You are so right to refrain from traveling in favor of staying with your puppy. I wish my master and mistress would do that. They are already talking about another long trip, this one to South America. Which means I'll have to stay in that plagued cage at the vet's again.

Trixie

P.S. Thanks for acknowledging that the dachshund is a lesser breed in comparison to mine. In fact, they all are.

Country Walk--in Town

Today, the WWTs were invited to La Foret Enchantee--home of member Martha Siv--for a hike around her semi-rural neighborhood in the middle of the city. As we walked to and from a stable, we saw groups of deer gamboling about yards. (Two spotted fawn were among them, not too much bigger than me.)

I have to say that because of the deer, horses and all manner of unseen creatures, the scents were infinitely more interesting that what I detect in the tamer suburban neighborhoods where we usually walk. In a word, the sniffing was superb.

After we got back to the house, the ladies sat out on Martha's porch overlooking a swimming pool. My mistress--who is not really a coffee drinker, preferring tea--loved the cafe au lait, which Martha prepared by bringing milk in a saucepan just to the boiling point and pouring it into the coffee.

Afterwards, the ladies shopped in Martha's in-house South China Seas store, which features clothing, textiles, jewelry, accessories and gift items from Asia. They were as elated with their exotic finds as I was with the exotic scents I'd detected on the walk. Thus both man and beast left enchanted by their visit to the enchanted forest.

No More Stargazing

I was in tall cotton at the Annual Terrell Hills Fourth of July parade. Dressed in my patriotic red-white-and-blue dress, I strutted down Eldon Road with my master, mistress and hordes of neighbors, their children and their dressed-up dogs, all decked out in red, white and blue.

Partway down the route I posed for a photo with former San Antonio Mayor Howard Peak, his wife and doggie. At the end of the route, the camera caught me being held by Terrell Hills Mayor Brad Camp while Councilman Charles Parish looked on. It seems celebrities like to have their photos taken with me. Well after all, I am pretty famous.

I was quite pleased with myself costume-wise, until I spied a dog who totally outdid me. One of Mary's friends, Becky DeWees, had dressed up her dog like Uncle Sam, complete with a tophat. (How was she able to make the hat stay on? Mine never do.) But I don't feel too bad about that. After all, they don't even live in Terrell Hills; they live next door in Alamo Heights.

After the parade, we drove up to our ranch near Tarpley to check on some renovation work. Thanks to more rain, the creek is still up big time. I loved walking alongside it while Mary took photos of blooming wildflowers. So far she has a couple of dozen different ones, which she intends to make into a book with her granddaughter.

Maverick was there with his dog, Chigurh, and Chigurh’s friend, Townes. None of us dogs like to venture out of the house after it gets dark, even though those dogs are waaaaay bigger than me.

Mary learned why over dinner at downtown Tarpley’s go-to café, Mac ‘n’ Ernie’s. She was telling a friend who lives a little way up the creek from us that we had seen a bobcat down the highway from our house. The friend replied that she had seen a mountain lion. From now on I expect all of of will be staying indoors at night, even though the stargazing is spectacular up there.

The Caged Dog Howls

Nine days ago, my master and mistress did the unthinkable: they dropped me off at the vet’s to be caged up while they traveled. I really let them know how I felt about the betrayal by howling (something that I rarely ever do) as they walked out.

For a week I was locked up while Mary and Lewis gadded about Virginia, visiting historic sites and researching family roots. They saw everything from Edgar Allen Poe's room at the University of Virginia in Charlotsville to an iron gazebo covering James Monroe's grave above the James River in Richmond. (I wonder if his spirit howls at being caged up like that?)

Two days ago, I was sprung. I had a spa treatment--bath and nail clip--just before being picked up, which put me in a good mood. Not one to hold grudges, I forgave my master and mistress and quickly dropped back into the daily routine of eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping...well, you get the picture.

They continue to talk between themselves (don’t they realize dogs listen?) about all the things they saw. None of it has caught my fancy except for a painting Mary saw in the Richmond art museum. It’s of an Irish setter playing the pianoforte. Now that’s something to howl about.