Teaching Oscar Charity

After I wrote the post to show my cake decorating, I realized that I did have something of else of interest to share (at least for you dog lovers out there.) This week, we took in a loose dog who was wandering around our front yard. He was a beautiful, sweet-tempered miniature dachshund. He was a dapple--a lovely black, silver, and brown mix.

Well, we couldn't leave him outside, so we tried to let him spend the night gated in our guest bathroom. Mark, Oscar, & I went to bed in our room as usual. After about an hour of barking & whining in stereo (our guest & Oscar), we gave up and let him out. Oscar settled down in our bed as usual and our guest slept on Oscar's bed beside us. Then, we all had quite a restful night.

Oscar was pretty clear with this guest that he was not exactly welcome. Oscar didn't really do anything mean, didn't bite or anything like that. But, he did seem to find other ways to make it clear that the food was his, the toys were his, the house was his, etc. I patiently explained to Oscar that we were just sheltering this dog temporarily; that we were being charitable neighbors and that we would want someone to take Oscar in if he were ever temporarily lost (Oscar's response was that he only lets us out of his sight to go to work & church and we pretty much have a curfew, so how on earth would we ever misplace him--I actually think he was mortified at the thought!). Oscar also reminded me that he makes a donation once a year to Central Texas Dachshund rescue and as far as he's concerned, that should be good enough!

When all was said & done though, the two dogs got along fairly well. They mostly slept during the heat of the day (Oscar on my lap & our guest on the dog bed on the floor--according to Oscar, both of them exactly where they belonged). We found our guest's family the next afternoon (through Craig's List), and reunited him with them. I think I heard Oscar sigh relief when I brought our guest (Sammie) to the door. As Mark said, Oscar did okay as long as we treated Sammie like furniture, but the minute we talked to him, touched him, or gave him any attention at all, Oscar reminded us that we belonged to him and to no other dog. Isn't it nice to know you're loved?!?!

From farm animals to roses!

I haven't posted in a long time because there hasn't been much to share until now. This weekend we celebrated Hunter's (our great nephew) 1st birthday. At his mom's request, I made the cake a barnyard scene (complete with a farm dog--a dachshund of course)!

I had left over cake batter, so I made cupcakes. Since I was still in cake decorating mode, I practiced making icing roses. I have never been very good at making them, but I thought these turned out quite well!