As part of the engaged journalism team here at Ideastream Public Media, my job is to connect with the community; to hear and tell their stories.
I love this work. It's very meaningful to me. But in telling the story of the 25th Northeast Ohio Dachshund Picnic in Kent, the community's story was also my own as I have owned dachshunds my entire life.
As is the case with dachshunds, there's always a story. In my family's case, my parents did not want to buy a dachshund. They actually wanted to get a standard poodle. But my dad decided to play with a dachshund in a pet store in St. Louis and promptly dropped the dog on its head!
He felt terrible and bought the dog. You know, "You break it, you buy it." And we’ve had dachshunds ever since. That was Snitchal number one, followed by Snitchal number two, Snitchal number three and Dave. The three Snitchals were kind of a personalized spelling of the German dish, schnitzel. And Dave was just Dave.
So, when I got to the picnic, which took place July 13 at Fred Fuller Park near Downtown Kent, it was like heaven on earth for me. I have to admit half the time I was interviewing owners and half the time I was speaking in baby talk to their dogs.
These are loyal, loving little pups with strong personalities that can be equal parts serious and clownish. And for every doxie there seems to be a million stories befitting their outsized personalities. There are also as many nicknames, including doxies, weens, wiener dogs or sausage dogs, due to their long bodies and short, stubby legs.
My family has countless stories involving the doxie members of our family throughout the years.
There is Dave, all 10 pounds of him, who used to straddle a 50 pound bag of dog food and growl at anyone who walked by because he thought that we were trying to steal his dog food from him. There’s Snitchal number three, who would burrow into pillowcases. She scared my Nana half to death one early morning. After making the bed, she turned around to see the pillowcase get up and start dancing around.
We laughed and laughed. Well everyone except Nana.
They can be funny, sure. But this little breed is also incredibly loyal and loving and protective. This includes being very vocal. So they bark or, as it’s known, sing the song of their people. Doxies will bark to make their presence known, they will bark to warn, they will bark to protect. They will bark at everything and they will bark at nothing. It's hard to tell sometimes, really.
This brings to mind another story that's famous among the Langel family and that also involves my Nana.
One weekend she was in the house by herself with our two dachshunds and she let the dogs out in the backyard very early in the morning. She forgot to let them in and they were barking.
After an hour or so, a neighbor came to the door to complain about the noise. My Nana, all 4 foot 11 inches of her, looked the neighbor in the eye and said softly in her southern drawl, "Well, they've got to pee and poop, don't they?!" But she didn't use the words "pee" and "poop." The neighbor just backed away awkwardly, and silently left.
When I got older and moved out on my own, I rescued Sammy and Sadie, my own doxies. I loved those dogs so much. Sadie lived to be 18. I called her my "familiar" because she was always by my side, always with me. There was never a boring day with those babies. They were full of such love, such life.
I can say with my 52 years of experience that doxies are the best dogs in the world. Little dogs with big voices and even bigger personalities.
All hail the wiener dog.
"The Cut" is featured in Ideastream Public Media's weekly newsletter, The Frequency Week in Review. To get The Frequency Week in Review, The Daily Frequency or any of our newsletters, sign up on Ideastream's newsletter subscription page.
