Patches was our second doxie and a truly valued member of our family. Our life with Patches began one morning when my husband woke me early to tell me he saw in a newspaper ad that someone had a 5 week old male dapple mini dachshund that was almost house trained. We had our youngest grandson spending a few days with us so we woke him up and told him to get dressed that we needed to hurry so someone else wouldn’t get there before us and buy the puppy. When we got to the house we were told that someone had put a deposit down for this puppy but later found out their child had real bad allergies so they decided not to get him. When they brought the puppy out to us I picked him up and I knew at that point we weren’t leaving there without him, he was ours. The room that we were in was fairly dark and my husband said to me, you don’t even know what color he is and I told him it didn’t matter he could have been purple. :-) We had been without a fur baby for eight years and I guess I was long over due. The week after we got Patches it rained a lot so when we took him out to do his business we held an umbrella so he wouldn’t get wet. He would do his business and then he would climb up on our foot so his belly would stay dry. He truly was pretty much house trained as the ad had stated. The kids in the neighborhood were fascinated Patches and would ring the doorbell and ask if Patches could come out and play and these same kids had dogs at home. When my husband would go out and get the newspaper in the mornings Patches would always follow him. One day before my husband had a chance to get to where the newspaper was Patches had ran ahead of him and picked up the plastic sleeve that the newspaper came in and was dragging the newspaper into the house. On another occasion Patches attempted to bring the newspaper in but he grabbed the wrong end of the plastic sleeve and by the time he got to the door he only had the plastic sleeve and he had left a trail of newspaper from the end of the driveway to the door. One day I was in our backyard talking to a neighbor while letting Patches play and the next thing I knew Patches had stuck his entire little head through one of the tiny holes in the chain link fence, this scared me so bad it was a wonder I didn’t tear his ears off rushing to get his head back through the hole. My neighbor once told my husband dogs only understood 15 words and he would ask her which 15 words do you think Patches understands today? Patches was very inquisitive. Shortly after bringing Patches home we realized just how smart he was. We would play with him in the backyard with a big ball. Our yard had hedges that ran along the fence line and we would kick the ball and he would run and push the ball all over the yard with his nose. Whenever he pushed the ball under the hedge it would sometimes get wedged in between the fence and the trunk of the hedge and he would bark as to say please come get it out for me. After a while it became a game of me kicking the ball and Patches shoving it into the hedges so I would have to get it out for him, somewhat like you handing something to a baby and them throwing it down so you will retrieve it for them over and over again. My husband was watching what was happening and he told me not to get the ball out of the hedges, to tell Patches you put it in there you get it out. At the time that my husband told me this I thought of it as mean and harsh but as it turned out it proved to be one of the best learning tools for me and Patches. He would still sometimes shove the ball into the hedges but he would work and concentrate on getting it out because he saw I wasn’t going to get it out for him and it became a challenge for him. I would get it for him only if after a while he had no success. He seemed to enjoy it more this way and it made our time spent in the yard much more enjoyable watching him. Because of us making him get the ball out of the hedges himself we noticed that when he was playing with a ball inside he would sometimes take the ball and shove it into tight areas or behind something and then take is paw and gently work it until he was able to get it out, and he would do it repeatedly after that. Patches was so gentle when doing anything. On occasion he might put the ball somewhere and then have second thoughts as to his ability of being able to get the ball out without knocking something over or disturbing or breaking something and in those cases he would then look at us letting us know he really needed our help. We would get it for him and tell him not to put it there again and normally he wouldn’t put it back there. One day when Patch was about 8 months old my husband and I were in the front yard washing the cars and Patches was there with us and after a while we heard this noise we didn’t recognize coming from the carport area, it was Patches shoving a Frisbee on the pavement with his nose and then he would jump on the Frisbee with his front paws and slide across the pavement on the Frisbee. Frisbee surfing soon became his favorite pastime. We have a motor home and love to go camping and so did Patches. As soon as we got to a campground he would go to the cabinet where his Frisbees were kept and wanted us to open the cabinet so he could get them out. He loved entertaining the other campers at the campground with his Frisbee surfing and then bringing the Frisbee back to someone so he could do it again and again. We would finally just have to just stop and make him come inside because he had a captive audience and would never get tired and the audience seem to just keep growing as news traveled around the campground about this little red doxie that would Frisbee surf and then pack the Frisbee that was just about as big as him back to someone so they could throw it and he could do it again. Patches loved everyone and everyone loved Patches, he never met a stranger. When Patches was a young puppy the girls that worked at the bank would come and get him out of the car and take him in the bank to show off. He always got a treat from the tellers when we went through the drive thru at the bank and that became a bit of a problem because he then would throw a fit to get in the drivers seat whenever we went through a drive thru anywhere because he thought he would get a treat. Patches wasn’t a barker, the only times he would bark was if he wanted you to throw the Frisbee for him or if he saw children in the car near ours, he loved children and he would look for them or if he wanted a treat. My mother was afraid of most dogs but she loved Patches. She would throw the ball to him and he was the first dog she let in her house.
Holidays and gift giving times were always fun for and with Patches because he loved to see what was in the gift bag or package. There was never a time that we went shopping and came home that he did not want to see what we had in the bags. Whenever there was an occasion to open gifts or someone brought gifts in Patches was right there dying to see what was in the package as it was unwrapped. Patches loved to ride on the lawnmower with us. If he happened to be outside while one of us was cutting grass we had to be real careful because in order to get to ride he would run and get in the path of the mower and just stand there until you stopped and picked him up and then he would have a great big smile on his face and he would proceed to kiss you. To show how smart Patches was whenever we went somewhere, Patches, Lucy and Harley had to stay home they always got a treat when we got back. As much as they all loved to go with us Patches figured out if he were to stay home rather than go he would get a treat so against his better judgment he would sometimes stay home. If Patches wanted to stay home rather than go with us we would tell him that if he was going to be good he did not have to get in the crate but that if he was going to be bad he needed to get in the crate. He would make the decision all by himself and sometimes he wanted to stay free and other times, well, I guess he didn’t trust himself and he got in the crate. People would only believe this when they saw it for themselves. I could go on forever about our special little love that we called Patches but I will stop because I think you now have a pretty good picture of why this little guy was so special to us and why we love and miss him so much. You will be forever in our hearts Patch.


Thanks for taking the time to stop by and share in our memories of our special little guy, and thanks from the bottom of our hearts for all the love you leave for him.














~~I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to HEART2HEART for sponsoring Patches memorial. Thank you my friend and may God Bless You. ~~