When I first saw Colonel, he was 4 days old and fit in the palm of my hand. Smelling like a warm new puppy, I wanted to stick him in my pocket and take him home that very day. It would be a long wait of three months before I got to bring him home. Colonel was the only AKC registered pet I ever owned, and his paperwork stayed in an envelope, never used. He was registered under the name of Colonel Wilhelm Klink X, a mighty long name for such a small pup. Like all puppies, he would soon grow into his name. Colonel was a dachshund and would have plenty of length, although not much height. He was too small for a standard and to big for a miniature, but for us, he was just right! His first big challange was to destroy the dreaded gate that kept him from the rest of his sleeping family. He achieved this in under a month at 2:30 in the morning. As everyone ran to see what had crashed; we were greeted by a smiling puppy sitting on the broken gate. How proud he was! Our days of sleeping alone were forever over. Some nights he just wore himself out going from bed to bed. He was quite the character. When he was about six months old, we introduced a cat into our household. After the usual snarls and hissing; these two would become life-long partners. Colonel would become the very first dog (in our neighborhood) to be owned by a cat!

midi~Beauty and the Beast
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