Becoming Canine Custodians

Location: Budapest
October 20, 2010
Adventure #36

Hello world, meet Pollock. His likes include curling up in laps, chewing stuffed animals shaped as dogs (he's a bit cannibalistic), bringing stray socks into his kennel and sprinting in circles around Budapest courtyards. Dislikes include being alone - even for a second, peeing in front of strangers and loud cars. I think we were meant to be.

An eccentric link that Michael and I have always shared is our utter infatuation with dachshunds. Both of our parents have had or have miniature, long-haired varieties of wiener dog, and we always vowed to have our own one day. Since living in Europe, our sights have been set on wire-haired ones, or as Michael calls them “old-man dachshunds” due to their beards.

Well, after months of searching, we acquired our very own little, old-man dachshund. He was born on May 31, so he's currently four and a half months old. We bought him from wonderful breeders in Eastern Hungary who used to call him Chester. While a cute name, we wanted something a bit more original, so we chose Ottokar Pollock von Beahm Klein – yes, we know we are ridiculous.

First, Ottokar is a traditional Hungarian name, and is also the name of a former king of Bohemia, which is perfect because he needed something that embraced his Hungarian roots. Also, Otto was a name suggestion from our wedding “Madlibs” where we asked our wedding guests to help name our future dachshund. Now, Pollock is what we actually call him, and he is named after Michael’s favorite artist, Jackson Pollock. This name is particularly fitting, because Pollock has a long, wiry tail that resembles a paint brush, so he deserved an artistic name.

Highlights of his first week home include:

- Befriending all of our apartment complex’s burly security guards. One guard pets him every chance he gets, and also shows me pictures of his dog he has on his phone.

- Falling asleep on the dirty clothes shelf of my gigantic wooden wardrobe.

- Chasing multiple neighbor dogs around my apartment courtyard.

- Being overall awesome about using the outdoor little dog's room.

- Making my life at least twice as happy.