Happy Birthday, Joe Louis!

We took a little break from the projects and blogging to spend some time with our little man last night.  Joe Louis is 1 year old today!  That's right, exactly one year ago today this little guy was born.

Birth Day!

Quite hamster-ish, right? Joe was a handsome little devil right from the start.  And only one year later he is a full-grown dachshund, weighing it at a hefty 9 lbs.  Getting better looking every day...

So we tortured him yesterday by making him wear a festive hat.  He'll put up with anything for a treat. 

1 year old

Warning: cat people may want to click that red X in the upper right hand corner.  Oh yeah, this is definitely a crazy-dog-mom post.

Here are some snapshots documenting Joe's first year.  This is what you do when you don't have kids.  Dress up your dog and celebrate his birthday.

2 weeks old

Joe Louis with his littermates.  He's the one looking at the camera. 

4 weeks old

We picked him up at 10 1/2 weeks.  Pic from his first day home.

10  1/2 weeks old



And first time meeting Lucy.



Of course we had to get him a life jacket for his first day on the boat.



Joe Louis made his way around...visiting Justin at work.  And he even travelled with me one day to visit clients.



 

11 weeks

12 weeks

 

13 weeks

 

14 weeks old

Here's our all time favorite video of Joe Louis.  He's very passionate about eating... (turn your speakers down before playing...I'm apparently screaming into the microphone)

It turns out that Joe Louis travels well.  He's endured several road trips with more than 9 hours in the car at a time.

4 months old - Somerset, PA

5 months - Carlisle, PA

He met his first house guest when Yuki stayed with us for two weeks in December.  Yuki and Joe Louis became great friends.

6 months old

For the first four months, Joe Louis was a breeze.  He had picked up potty training, never barked, learned a bunch of tricks (sit, stay, lay down, play dead and roll over) and he was so laid back I thought we had hit the puppy lottery.

Then...he reminded me why I vowed never to have another puppy after Lucy.  Overnight Joe Louis turned into a little terror.  He got into everything. 

 6 months

 

7 months

 

8 months

 We thought having his little beans removed might help him calm down...

10 months

Nope.

10 months

11 months

The vet got to know us very well after the multiple phone calls I've had to make regarding different items he would ingest.  The kid has a stomach of steel and a huge personality for such a little body.

 

11 months

 

11 months

One thing is for sure.  Lucy has a little buddy - I even catch them playing together sometimes.

 

 

Don't be fooled by the cute pictures.  When Joe isn't getting into trouble, he's planning his next move.  Don't trust him. 

 

1 year old

Happy Birthday, Joe man!

1 year old

Thanks for enduring the crazy dog photos for me!  Celebrating a dogs birthday really isn't all that crazy.  Celebrating the birth of a Corvette - now that's pretty crazy.  Right Dad??

Mary

  

I knew that Dachshunds are prone to several disesases, including eye disease, and more commonly, back problems. I had also heard that some doxies can be nasty and mean - so I set out to find a breeder who bred only doxies and cared mostly about health and attitude. Before I get attacked by Sarah Mclaughlin, let me be clear. I feel very strongly about not buying a dog from an unethical "breeder" - while all animals deserve equal amounts of love, I won't support a shady individual to continue mistreatment and misbreeding of animals. We should all do enough work to find out if our money is supporting a puppy mill or a crappy person. I wanted a dog bred for health and attitude. And I found a breeder who loves mini doxies and bred them to be healthy, loving - and obviously, handsome.