It's 2001 now and here are our latest photographs of our 21st century dachshunds. The century starts out with a bang...a stand-off between a dachshund and a Great Dane! And if you know dachshunds, I bet you know who won this stare-down. Yep, our Ms Shakti triumphed over this mere 120-pound dog. No one is bigger in their own minds than dachshunds!

Our three doxies are very active dogs who are out taking 3-mile long hikes in the local parks every day, year 'round (except for when it rains heavily, which isn't often in the San Juan islands). The biggest park on our island is the American Camp National Historical Monument, and it's a wonderful place to go on most of our long walks. This picture shows me with our longhaired dachshund Gaudi on one of the park's trails.

This photo was taken at the same park late in the afternoon, and shows our longhaired female doxie Shakti enjoying the cliff-top view.

Shakti is the easiest of our three dachsies to pose, so she gets to be the star of many of the planned photographs. When I ask her to sit somewhere and stay still she does, so she makes a good model. Here she shows off more of the beautiful scenery of American Camp.

This picture will make more sense if I explain the story behind it: There is another island nearby called Lopez island with a number of nice smaller parks. The dachshunds' favorite is Spencer Spit State Park, and our dachsies love it because it's packed with thousands of wild rabbits! Oh, do our doxies go mad with desire when they see these bunnies hopping about! They adore chasing the bunnies, but they never come close to actually catching any. (The bunnies' secret is that they are not only very fast but they zigzag in surprising ways that no dachshund can keep up with.) But how our Wotan, Shakti and Gaudi enjoy the chase! At the end of the sand spit which stretches out so far it almost touches nearby Frost island, there is an old beach log that some animal lives in. Every time for the past 3 years that we have gone to this park, Wotan and Shakti zero in on this log and try to reach the critter that inhabits it. Wotan knows not to go too far into this mostly hollowed-out log, but Ms. Shakti always goes deep into it ...so far that she can no longer back out. And so she must come out the only way she can, which is to squeeze slowly through a small knothole in the log. That's what's she is doing in this photo. 'Shakti the contortionist' we sometimes call her.

Our adopted dachshund Gaudi gets himself stuck in other tight places. Gaudi is a big chowhound and his favorite thing to do in this world is... eat! Here you can see him helping out with the dishes as he thoroughly licks out the blender jar.

Dachshunds are funny dogs in many ways. One thing they like to do is sit on people. They aren't happy sitting near people, they have to actually be on top of people's bodies to be comfy. That means that if you have three dachshunds, you often have all three sitting on your lap even if it's a struggle to fit them all on. This picture shows the male human who used to be around beset by our wiener dogs.

Dachshunds are not just lap dogs, however. They are also extremely active and great hunters. Our Wotan and Shakti never tire of a good hunt. When we bought our house a few years ago the former owners abandoned a very large, very dirty carpet upstairs in our barn. We managed to roll it up with the help of some friends but found we needed at least 4 or 5 people to haul it away because of its great weight and bulk. Since we couldn't find that many strong males about, we just left the carpet rolled up in this unused loft in the barn. One day Shakti went up there and started going wild as she barked and tore at the carpet. Wotan joined her and for a few days the two of them spent many happy but frustrating hours ripping at this carpet and barking. When my husband came back home we managed to unroll the carpet....and out ran a big rat from a nest she had built inside the rug! Hunters though they be, Shakti and Wotan didn't see the rat when she darted quickly out and went behind some boxes. So they never caught this rat (although they have caught others here....see my Wonder Wiener Dogs of Washington. page for that).

There is one thing our three dachshunds agree on: that every night they must get served a nice-sized piece of pig ear. Yum! Wotan says as he grasps his piece. Shakti is especially addicted to her pig ears and starts her ritual begging every night after dark. For those who don't know, BTW, pig ears are just what they sound like. Dogs love them.

Handing over the nightly treat to Gaudi. He always gets the smallest piece, really ... this large piece was just for the camera. Shakti usually gets the largest piece as she's a big-boned dachshund who keeps a trim figure because of her finicky taste in foods.

One difference between long-haired and smooth-coated doxies is that the longs seem to like water more. Whenever we come across a placid lake or creek, both Shakti and Gaudi like to wade in the shallow waters. Gaudi has sometimes even gone into a lake and taken a swim. This photo shows one time when he did that, but not voluntarily. We lived at a rented house that had a large pond. One very warm day the male who used to be around decided to place them into the water and see if they would swim about. Here you can see the moment when he lowered Gaudi into the pond.

And here is the end result...Gaudi in the muddy shallows of the pond. Gaudi used to swim more, but one time in Oregon he got caught in some reeds that he couldn't get through, and almost went under...the male human reluctantly had to wade in and rescue him. Ever since then Gaudi only wades, he doesn't swim.

After her forced performance in the pond, we can see Shakti swimming to shore. Gee, these humans have us do some weird things, she thinks.

Sometimes I just take photos of our dachshunds sitting and looking pretty. Here's our oldest dachsie Wotan (who will be 11 in Sept 2001) looking quite handsome on our lawn. Doxies love to sunbathe and often lie in the sun for hours just basking in the warmth.