Dixies Babies

Cindy and I moved from New Mexico to California back in 09, at the time Dixie was still an energetic and playful young pup. Packing up the house to move was confusing to Dixie because I guess we never sat down and actually discussed the move with her.

Dixie sleeping with Squeaky Mouse

In our bedroom we had a doggie bed for Dixie to sleep in, which she never did, Dixie actually slept in our bed along with her favorite toy "Squeaky Mouse", she did however use the doggie bed to store her favorite toys. While we were packing up our bedroom there was an empty duffle bag sitting on the floor, Dixie started taking her squeaky toys out of her bed/toy box and placing them into this duffle bag, once she was finished every one of the toys that she actually played with was in the bag, Dixie had packed up her own possessions, so this bag went into the front of the U-Haul where she would be riding with Cindy and I.

We said our goodbyes to the whole neighborhood and even had one friend stop by with a newborn baby goat that she was bottle feeding to show us before we left, not sure why we had to see the goat but it does reappear in the story later on.

Dixie had never had puppies, and being in heat actually seemed to scare her to death, every time she went into heat it was like she was completely embarrassed by the mess, she worked feverishly to clean up everything around her, and she would actually hide underneath my desk rather than try to "go outside and mingle", this continued up until she came out of heat. And just before we made the trip to California in the U-Haul, Dixie had gone through her latest nightmare with heat.

We decided that since this was so traumatic on her that we would look into having Dixie spayed when we got to California. So once we were settled in we took Dixie to the vet to inquire about getting her spayed, we made the decision to go ahead with the procedure, Dixie wasn't very happy about our decision. She said something about not needing to be fixed because she wasn't broken...and she came through the surgery just fine.

Like I mentioned before Dixie never used a doggie bed for anything other than toy storage. Cindy's Dad had a poodle named Buttons who was very protective of his bed, he never allowed another dog near it, but a couple of days after her surgery Dixie pretty much claimed Buttons bed.

She actually crawled inside of it, scratched around a bit, and then laid down, we thought that she must be sore from the surgery, and Buttons was just giving her a little time to heal before taking it back.

Very quickly Dixie started a whole new routine, she brought her favorite toy "squeaky mouse" from our bedroom and placed it into the bed, and then she rushed back to the bedroom and returned with another squeaky toy, this went on until there were six toys tucked safely in the bed and then she climbed in on top of them. We all had a good laugh over this, but poor old Buttons wasn't laughing...

When we got up the next morning Dixie was still lying in the bed cuddling the squeaky toys, she wouldn't go outside for anything, not to play, not to see, not even to pee. I had to carry her outside so she would go; she simply wanted to stay in bed with her chosen toys.

We got Dixie out of the house with a promise of going for a ride, Dixie does like to ride, and during this ride I ended up with warm milk soaking the leg of my jeans courtesy of little Miss Dixie, not only was my leg wet from where she was sitting, there was also a stream of milk running down the door and pooling inside the storage compartment at the bottom of the door.

Baby Goat-Photo Source

Remember the baby goat? Dixie had been introduced to a newborn baby goat the day we left New Mexico. A friend had for some unknown reason brought this little goat that she was bottle feeding for us to see before we left town, Dixie had taken a liking to this little goat and had actually crawled into the little bed that it was napping in, while we visited with our friend. Dixie comforted, cleaned, played with and protected this little baby while it was there, and cried like a baby herself when the baby goat was taken home.

With this tidbit of information Dixie's Vet concluded that Dixie was in a false pregnancy before surgery, and the surgery told her little hormones that she had given birth, which brought on the nesting and the gathering of six squeaky toys which she is now nursing, sleeping with and even protecting, we were told that she would give up after about a week and everything would be normal again.

Dixie hanging out with a few of her squeaky toys/babies

Well folks it was six weeks later before Dixie started weaning her pups, this whole thing was quite an experience, she was such a good Momma, she nursed and cleaned each one and when there was more attention than she wanted, one by one she would move her babies and hide them underneath our bed, and cuddle them there. I could take them out from under our bed and put them into the doggie bed, but she simply took them one by one back under our bed.

Cindy's brother thought it was pretty funny, so he tried to take Dixie's babies from under the bed, the next thing we saw was Cindy's brother running from out of our room with Dixie barking, growling, and nipping at his heels, she chased him all the way to the front door. Everyone left her alone after this.

It was kind of cute to come in and see Dixie lying in the living room with the toys laying in a semi circle watching them closely, she would just lay and watch them for a bit and then take them one by one back to bed, and you know that sweet smell you have when there is a litter of pups, that old smells like a puppy smell? This exact smell was right there in that doggie bed.

Dixie eventually weaned them all and stopped gathering them all up daily to nurse them, clean them and watch them play. One by one the squeaky toys returned to the toy stash in our bedroom, Cindy did end up running them all through the washer and dryer, six weeks of warm milk pressed into a squeaky toy does call for a good bath. Dixie was still close to squeaky mouse and started bringing her back out to play, but quickly returned her safely back to our bedroom when Ray (Cindy's Dad) said to her "Hey Dixie let me see your baby?"

Dixie with Squeaky Mouse now.

Dixie at bedtime last night

This all happened 9 years ago and believe it or not Dixie still has Squeaky Mouse, yes this is the same squeaky mouse. Dixie has gained some gray on her face, and Squeaky Mouse has undergone numerous squeaker transplants but in the end this is still her favorite baby.