Today we lost a family member – a loving companion – a Good Boy – Ira – all too soon.

When we got Ira as a puppy, he was an ugly duckling – he came from out of state - had I seen him in person, I never would have chosen him. It would have been our loss. As Ira matured, he became a beautiful swan right before our eyes. Flowing coat, good conformation, excellent feathers and tail flag – and a *good* boy. He was easy to housetrain; something that as dachshund owners, we know is darn near impossible. He was a very quiet puppy – he’d be happy to entertain himself for hours with toys or just something to chew on. He was obedient, again, something dachshund owners dream of, even coming when called, and a good stud. He also never marked in the house – while he was a stud, nor after he retired. He loved his wife Isabel (IB) and sired 7 children – Leo (Japan), Snooper (Long Island), Angel (MT), Whiskey (AK), Kinsey (SD), Otto & Mimi who are here with us.

Ira loved his toys – but, only latex toys; not rubber, stuffed, or any of those other toys – no, they had to be latex or he wouldn’t bother with them. He also had a habit of choosing which toy he’d play with every morning after breakfast. He had a great memory of where he stashed his toys and would go find the toy of “his” choice for you to use. Should *you* make the choice for him, and throw a different toy, well, he might run after it, but when he caught up to it and gave it a sniff, he knew it wasn’t the toy of *his* choice, and he’d walk away, hunting for what *he* wanted to play with. He always found the right toy.

He never missed an opportunity for play – no matter how busy you were, oh no, if you were on the floor for any reason it was play time. He’d grab a toy, throw it down by you, and if you didn’t notice it, he’d nudge it into your body then whine quite loudly until you threw the darned thing just to shut him up. Then the game began because he was tireless in his play. Throw, fetch, throw, fetch, this was Ira’s dream of a perfect day.

In the bathroom, in the kitchen, even if you stood up from the couch to go get something, down Ira would jump to get that toy so you could toss a few throws. Hey, why not? You weren’t doing anything more important (in his opinion anyway). I now regret every thought I had that throwing that toy was an imposition – I would give anything to have him here with us now, wanting to play fetch.

Coming home from town he was sure there was a toy for him in the bag and would whine until he got one – I kept a stash in the cupboard just for that reason. He’d squeak the toy (the louder the squeaker the better) and work on removing the squeaker, but he’d play with the toy afterwards – that annoying squeaker was out but the toy still fun to play with. Many nights I’d be sleeping with 5 dachshunds and a latex toy shoved up against me.

We lost him Thursday morning too early in his life to a ruptured spleen. He died on the operating table around 1:15am at the Emergency Vet Clinic in town. To have him go so quickly – so unexpectedly, is almost more than we can bear. The pain of losing our boy is overwhelming. We miss him – we see him everywhere, especially in Mimi’s face who looks so much like her dad.

Though the pain of losing him, especially so soon and unexpectedly is overwhelming and you feel your heart is breaking in 100 million pieces, I would never trade a minute that I spent loving him and cherishing the joy he brought into our lives – never. Many people say “no more dogs” when they lose one of their cherished pets – its too hard to bear when you lose them – I can’t go through it again – and this is true. It IS hard, it IS one of the worst experiences in life – your heart does ache and grieve and you feel like you can’t go on – that you never, ever want to experience that pain again – and its true, you don’t. But, as every pet lover knows – to miss the years you DO have that pet and enjoy the love and happiness only that dachshund can bring into your life, you also realize that NOT opening your heart and life to one so wonderful for whatever time God gives you with them is the worst crime. We miss Ira so much, tears flow constantly, we feel we can’t go on – even with the other dachshunds, which we are so glad to have (I can’t imagine an empty house without a dachshund) Ira was unique like every dachshund on earth and that NO other will ever replace or be like him, and we loved him like no other.

Despite the snow and frozen ground we have right now, Bill was able to bury him by the apple tree – along with a blanket, his favorite snap-a-danna, and of course – many of his latex toys. I have no doubt that our Ira is at the Rainbow Bridge romping and playing with those who have gone before him – and squeaking his latex toys.

So we say goodbye dear friend - until we meet again, keep choosing just the right latex toy and squeaking it. Once we join you, we’ll take over, and we’ll never be too busy to throw that toy.

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