Zoey is a 2 (almost 3) year old mini dachshund/chiweenie mix. I got her a month or two ago, and have fallen so far in love, I don't even know how to explain it. She is not only adorable (have you seen the tongue?), but she is also sweet, funny, and has attached herself at my hip. Dachshunds are known for being very loyal and often pick one person as their "favorite". That person is me.
From Day 1 of adoption, Zoey somehow knew I was her Mom and would hide behind me when she was scared, and always chose my lap first. This was immediately the most heart-warming thing in the world, so I bonded right back!
We have a very special mom-of-a-wiener-dog and wiener dog bond, and I'm looking forward to many more adventures with this little one. Just NOT adventures like this one:
So, I'm driving home from work with Zoey, who love love loves the car. She jumps directly in the car when I open the door, loves hopping from front seat to back seat and digging at the seats, loves perching on my lap and poking her nose out the window, just loves it.
I didn't think the whole rolled-down-window/dog-pokes-her-nose-out thing was potentially life-threatening, until this happened, however. So, Zoey is on my lap, and the window is rolled 3/4 of the way down. She has her face out the window and her little paws perched on the side of the door. Keep in mind, Zoey is 5.5 pounds, so she's teensy. I'm approaching the intersection where my apartment is located, so I roll the window down a little more. Now we're about 7/8 of the way down ... because as we drive (at the allotted 15 mph) through the apartment maze to get to ours, she loves to perch a little higher/stick her nose out a little further and patrol, barking at all the neighborhood dogs/people/leaves/cars.
So, we're turning into the apartment and Zoey hops up further, this time with her back legs on my arm ... my Mommy instincts are going wild, as I sense she's rearing to jump, and I yell "ZOEY!" right as she sails directly out my driver's side window.
Horrified, I slam on the breaks, because she's made a truly terrifying squeak/squeal noise when she hit the pavement. Shit shit shit shit I've killed my dog. My little baby wiener dog is dead. She hit the pavement. I ran over her. I'm the worst mother in the world. I hate everything. I slam the car into park (remember, I'm still smack dab in the middle of the intersection. At this point, the other cars are just going to have to maneuver around the butt of my car, because HELLO MY WIENER DOG IS IN DANGER) and fling my seat belt off. I see Zoey, sort of walking slowly toward me, rapidly looking back and forth and licking her tongue in and out. I'm still freaking out, and I run to her and grab her and proceed to hold her for the next 20 minutes. She seems to be okay (even though Mom needs CPR and some Xanax), and I clear my car out of the intersection, as to not cause any more drama then has already been caused.
We get home, and Zoey seems to be doing okay. She just keeps licking her mouth, and me, and herself, and the car ... I'm assuming this is her coping mechanism, and she knows she somehow went through something traumatic and needs to "fix" it. She didn't hop out of the car, like she usually does when I open my door, but do you blame her? We snuggled on the couch, and she propped herself into a little pillow throne before promptly falling asleep. Poor little pumpkin! It's like the stress of the entire situation prompted her into sleeping for half an hour.
I continued to check her periodically, but she seemed perfectly fine, just a little shell-shocked.
This is a Zoey selfie from today, good as new.
