Steve Moseley

Good Wife Norma sits with the new Moseley tube dog, 12-year-old Punkin.’

Courtesy photo

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We swore it wouldn’t be done. We swore no way we would do it …”

Ever adopt another wiener dog is what I’m talkin’ ‘bout today.

Yes, longtime friends and readers in Wyoming and Nebraska who know our dachshund history, there is indeed a new (to us) full-time, night-wiener in residence at the Moseley cabin on Fairview Drive.

This despite my previous and copious ‘never again’ pledges to the contrary.

That’s Punkin’ in the photo getting a comfy rubdown from Good Wife Norma after a warm, luxurious bath. Next up? A new ‘do’ and a bit of intense dental attention.

Old friends and Cary Street neighbors (hello over the fence to Ken and Sue Skalsky) in Powell may recall Max, Prissy and Fritz yapping and chasing squirrels back in the old days; Prissy with occasional lethal results. Shaken Squirrel Syndrome was her special skill.

Now decades later, this year in Nebraska we were down to just Daphne, age 17, a mostly deaf, mostly blind, lumpy bag-of-bones. She was to be the last of nine rescue tube dogs over many years. I pledged previously in this space and in conversation that she would be the last. For sure. Forever.

Finally (big sigh) a life free of wiener encumbrances lay in plain sight. The canine grim reaper would soon liberate a true retiree lifestyle for us at last.

Then, GWN’s sister Ruth and her husband Jim made the decision to move from their home here in York to Willow Brook assisted living.

Then comes the hiccup: Willow Brook does not allow wiener dogs for obvious reasons. Not even sweet, house broken ladies like 12ish-year-old Punkin’.

Under the circumstances, chief of which was to not inflict her occasional riding excitement seizures on someone else, Jim and Ruth had decided to put down their still engaging, alert and active, but nonetheless geriatric and slightly flawed companion.

To say their hearts were shattered with dread at the prospect is a gross understatement. You can guess what happened next. Sure you can.

In the final hour GWN and I would not, could not, allow that to happen.

That is how Jim and Ruth’s first night in their new home came to be Punkin’s first night in ours.

It’s only been a week of days and nights with Punkin’ as these words are written. So far, so wonderful.

Meanwhile, clueless but blessedly pain-free Daphne hangs in, though it’s plain to see her end is near.

This story is why, once GWN can force herself to help faithful Daphne over the Rainbow Bridge, freedom will not be our reward after all.  You know what they say about “the best laid plans …”

But what a small price to pay to help family escape looming heartbreak and gain a loving new companion for us into the bargain.