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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Dachshund Reincarnation


There's nothing as sad in the world as losing your beloved little furry ones, and when they go, humans will go to great lengths to fill that void in their lives.  There are stories of people who have had their dogs cloned, and there is a Dachshund Lover from Utah who right now is on the hunt for the mother of his little girl 'Sophie' who passed in a fire last month -  he has hopes that the owners will breed her so he can, in some way, get the closest thing possible to his Sophie back.
While not going to such great extremes, enter Mary and Bruce Peterson, seen here, with their newly adopted Dachshund 'Anna.'  Anna is the sister of a Dachshund named 'Jenny' that the Wisconsin natives lost to IVDD last year, but it was just fate that led Anna to their home.  Excerpt from the Journal Sentinel:

Jenny, a 9-year-old miniature dachshund belonging to Bruce and Mary Peterson of Waukesha, died in March 2011.
Last week, the Petersons got Jenny's sister, Anna. She had been turned over to a vet by an elderly woman who couldn't care for her anymore.
With the original breeder of the dogs acting as a middleman, Bruce drove to the veterinary clinic and got Anna on the day she was scheduled to be euthanized.
"When the doctor entered the room with the dog, I thought I was seeing things. She looked just like Jenny. I was overloaded with a ton of emotions," Bruce told me.
The story starts June 21, 2001, when Jenny and Anna and a few more littermates were born to a dachshund owned by breeders Pat and Carol Tesar in Edgerton. The Thompsons, who then lived in Kenosha, took Jenny home in September just days before Sept. 11, and a couple from Lake Mills took Anna.
The Tesars, who have since retired from the breeding business, have stayed in touch with many people who have purchased their puppies over the years. This month, they stopped in to see the woman who originally took Anna.
She is now 82, and her husband died two years ago. He had been very attached to Anna, but the wife had difficulty connecting to the dog after her husband's death. On more than one occasion, most recently on July 8, Anna bit the woman.
The woman told the Tesars she planned to take the dog to the Waterloo Veterinary Clinic. She had become afraid of Anna and was worried the dog would bite someone else.
The minute he looked into the eyes of Jenny's sister Anna, Bruce knew she was coming home with him. The clinic lent him a dog carrier for the ride home from Waterloo. Bruce called Mary on the way home to tell her they were dog owners again.
Anna immediately warmed to her new owners and their home and backyard. The biting stopped. Bruce took Jenny's collar, which had been in a place of honor in the house along with a tin containing Jenny's ashes, and he put it on Anna. He retrieved Jenny's doggy bed, pillow, blanket, bowls and favorite toys from storage. They belong to Anna now.
Anna has most of Jenny's chocolate brown and tan coloring and her mannerisms, though she does sleep later in the morning. Jenny was insistent about going outside before dawn. The neighbors noticed the new dog and got an eerie feeling that Jenny had returned.
"I said to my neighbor that you don't get too many opportunities to get your dog back. That's what it feels like," Bruce said.
Jenny died too young, he said, "and for us, it's like we get to finish what we started out doing."


Wow.  Read more of this story at the Journal Sentinel. 

3 comments:

  1. What a sweet, sweet story!! Welcome to your wonderful new home, Anna!

    Melinda in McLean

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  2. As a friend of rescues, this story touched my heart.

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  3. I truly believe that Jenny was sooo loved that she was watching out for her sister Anna from the RainBow Bridge. Amazing story of love and devotion. Thanks for sharing

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