My name is Magnus and I am a medium-sized black and tan, long-haired dachshund. I am 6 years old. I live with my Mom and two other dachshunds who joined the family later after I arrived.

Sisi is a pretty, miniature, smooth hair red-gold bitch, also 6. I love her. Her slender muscular frame is lovely to watch. She has the look of a “greyhound”. She leaps and jumps and covers a lot of ground quickly. She is affectionate and loves to burrow under the covers. She is sweet, but fierce when hunting…Then there is
Dandy Dude, who is 3, or is he 4? Who cares? I tolerate him. We have what the humans call ‘Detente’. If he were not here I would probably miss the company. Today I was sleeping beside him in Mom’s bed when she woke up. She came around the bed to look at us and hug us both. She smiled and told us how cute we are. Apparently, we were both sleeping on our backs lengthwise, bellies exposed, next to each other. Our body-fur touched all
alongside our bodies. Our legs were sticking up, completely relaxed and airborne our heads turned away from each other in complete oblivion and utterly unfazed by each other’s nearness. Dandy is also a miniature but he has long golden-red hair which sometimes sticks out at his sides as if he had been electrocuted. Mom says he is cute with his light brown eyes, light brown nose, and light brown lips. My eyes are very dark brown, my nose is
black and so are my lips. I am very handsome.

I want to tell you about my food these days. It is new. I love it. Licking the bowl of every possible speck of food is fun. Thanks, Mom. (And thanks to “The Farmer’s Dog”)

For many years my Mom lived with her old Mother in the Mother’s house in Washington DC. Their cook was named Maria and she loved me. When we first moved there from our old home there were a couple of other dogs, but over the years they grew old and died. And after a while, we acquired Sisi for Mom and Dandy for Mom’s Mother (who was 99 at the time).

Maria cooked fresh chicken for us. We ate some dried dog food pellets as a base but on top of that, we had real honest-to-goodness chicken, grated carrots, and white rice. Sometimes other meat or veggies leftover from meals for the humans was added, too. Maria cared about our health and the look of our coats. She wanted the food to taste good. We all wagged our tails when she drew near. She was our special caretaker. Of course at that house there were other caretakers for Mom’s Mother who turned 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 while we lived there and then 101, We were really used to living there and thought it would go on forever. But one day in November 2019 the old lady died. We barely noticed except that the caregivers left. Dandy Dude noticed though. And he grieved. He looked for her. He slept in a chair outside of her room every night. He would come to bed with us upstairs for about ten or fifteen minutes snuggling. Then he would go back downstairs to his chair near the door to his dead mistress’s first-floor bedroom. He loved my Mom, but he missed his mistress.

Months passed and then last June our Mom found a wonderful house near Charlottesville VA. She brought all three of us here to live. Maria the cook, flew to Spain. She was Spanish and had always planned to go back there one day. But she was worried about our food. She made our Mom promise to feed us chicken at least some of the time. Mom did her best, but the chicken was appearing less and less as time wore on.

We are so happy here at Loftlands. We have all the room (acres and acres) we could want to go hunting. We have great places to lie in the sun. There are lizards and squirrels and chipmunks to chase. Even an occasional frog, ambles by. But where was the chicken? Some days we got some, but many times we ate “commercial” food.

Then one day Mom heard an ad for The Farmer’s Dog on the radio. She looked it up on the web that very same day! She filled out some information online and waited for them to contact her. It happened fast. After telling the company some of our histories, and sharing our ages and weight with them, they came to an agreement. We would become clients of the Farmers’ Dog. Wow!

We were introduced to the new food gradually. But it was love at first sight. It reminded us of Maria’s cooking. Only possibly better. We have become avid fans of this company. Our eating period has become our favorite time of the day. Mom fluffs the food up while we salivate and pant our impatience. I bark enthusiastically to encourage her to be quick. Once all the bowls are filled she is careful to dispense the food nearly simultaneously. We all dig in with our long noses. We relish every single
bite and lick the sides of our dishes just in case there might be a bit clinging there. I usually finish first because I receive my food first. But it is almost an even tie between the three of us. Our coats are becoming shinier and our eyes are bright. I would say we are thriving! And I for one am enjoying every bite. Thank you “Farmers Dog” from all the Matheson pups. We are so glad Mom found you!

Signed,
Magnus, Sisi, and Dandy Dude

Copyright©. 2021 Bonnie B. Matheson