Amos and Baxter are very well-behaved when they drop in to have their photo taken. There's no yapping or nipping or playing shy. This is part of the benefit of adopting older dogs, according to Susanna Braund who has welcomed the two 11-year-old dachshunds into her family. "They bring us great joy," she says, adding that they are downright mellow.
Amos and Baxter are two litter mates who have never been separated from one another. "Their names are somewhat of a joke," Braund says. "Amos is the name of a sausage maker in the USA and Baxter is a company that makes sausages in the UK."
Braund did not set out to adopt a pair of dachshunds. She had been in Seattle to look at two pugs who needed a home when she received an email from Dogwood Rescue urgently looking for someone to foster dachshunds. "Dogwood Rescue is a rescue organization that has been helping foster and re-home dogs for 30 years. Although it specializes in sporting dogs, it's not deaf to other needy dogs," Braund says.
"Amos and Baxter were rescued from Klamath Falls, Oregon," Braund recalls. "And they were brought here in a car with a total of seven dachshunds."
Amos and Baxter had been given up by a family with a new baby and were living in a shelter for three months with five survivors of a large household of dachshunds. When the shelter was at capacity and the possibility of euthanasia loomed, Dogwood Rescue stepped in. Amos and Baxter spent the trip from Oregon curled up together on the front seat.
Braund responded to the email, fostered the two dogs for three days and then decided that she wanted them to be part of the family permanently. "We didn't know anything about them and were surprised to see that they have such enormous personalities for such tiny dogs," she says.
But the happy ending may not be lasting as Baxter shows signs of an illness. "We think he's got lung cancer," Braund said. "Alistair [Westcott, the local veterinarian] took blood out of his lungs and Baxter is breathing a lot easier, but the chest x-ray showed very limited lung function."
This is not the first time, Braund took in an elderly dog with health problems. "We already did this in 2010-11 with Reno, a lovely Schipperke/Australian Cattle Dog cross who was at least 13 years old when he came to us from Langley Animal Protection Society. He was almost entirely deaf and his vision imperfect, but he had a lovely last ten months on Bowen," she said. "He enriched our lives enormously."
Braund is enamored with the way Amos takes care of Baxter and says her other dogs, Toby and SuzieQ, accepted the dachshunds as well. "We're thrilled Dogwood Rescue exists," she says. "Those two are bringing us great joy."
