There wasn't much Toto hated worse than getting wet and cold. In order to get him to potty in the rain, I had to go out with a golf umbrella held directly over him. As you know, I'm in NC the land of hot, hazy, humid weather. We rarely see more than 3 or 4 inches a snow a year. On a Saturday in March of 1979 we awoke to very unusually cold day for March. By noon, the weather forecast was for several inches of snow. We had plenty of groceries it was a weekend so we hunkered down for the day. On Sunday morning we awoke to 18"of snow on the ground and still falling. I had one very excited child singing no school tomorrow and one wee red mini who needed to potty. Why did I think when opened the door he would go willingly? When he got one sniff of the cold air, tucked his tail and ran for cover. I gently reminded him he was German and that his kind liked snow. He wasn't buying what I was trying to sale. Ok, I think I'm the human I'll take charge. I picked him up, opened the front door. I kicked some of the snow out of the way with the expectation that he was about to pop and would quickly potty and come right back. Oh my word was I wrong. All of a sudden his German genes kicked in, he sniffed at the snow, and off he went. He was tunneling through the front yard in 18" of snow with about 14" above his head. Every so often he'd hop up to look for us all you could see was the black nose that looked like a periscope. He was in dachshund heaven he had found his purpose in life. He was running at Dach Mach speed. Now, if he could have just found a badger he would have been a happy, hopping mini Doxie. This photo of Toto was taken in 1985.
