Hello lovelies,
I can’t believe I’m writing this post today, time has flown by!
365 days ago, on the 14th of September 2019, we drove 2 and a half hours to Southampton to go and pick up my little sausage.
On this day a year ago, my life changed forever. I become a hooman mum to a gorgeous sausage dog called Mabel.
14th September 2019
I remember as we drove closer and closer to Mabel’s breeders house, I felt this overwhelming feeling of excitement, so excited that I burst into tears. I just couldn’t get myself together. I felt everything from excitement to nervous, it really was a emotional drive for me. But the moment Mabel was placed in my arms, I was just floored with love.
If you know me, you’ll know how long I’ve wanted a sausage dog for. Since falling ill, all I’ve ever wanted is a small lap dog who will cuddle up to me. A dog who notices the bad days and makes me feel better again. I know that’s strange to say but if your a dog person, you’ll agree that dogs really do, do that.
As I was scrolling through the dachshund page on Facebook that we had joined a couple of years prior, I laid eyes on a beautiful puppy photo of Mabel and her siblings and I instantly fell in love. The feeling is what I can imagine ‘love at first sight’ feels like. She captured my heart and I knew that she was the one for me.
17th August 2019
It still feels so surreal to me that I’ve actually got my own little sausage. I look at her everyday and feel beyond grateful to my parents & grandparents who went out their way to buy me a sausage.
I’ve absolutely loved every second of having a puppy in our lives but that being said, it was difficult. The first couple of months were harder than expected, I suppose that’s because we hadn’t had a puppy in 10+ years. When I say, Mabel was tiny, I truly mean it. So we was on a constant look out incase she got trod on (as she liked running underneath peoples feet as they were walking) or got herself underneath something (which happened a lot, especially the sofa haha!).
Mabel has honestly got the best personality I’ve ever known a dog to have!
She has the best little character and you can guarantee she’ll have you laughing throughout the day. She’s got her funny little ways, which in turn make Mabel who she is.
Man, one thing about sausages I didn’t know was how clever they actually are! As a joke we thought it would be funny to name her toys and within days, she knew all her toys names and would collect them if you called them by their name. She’s so blooming clever, it still to this day amazes us!
Christmas was our first real big event with Mabel and she was amazing. You see these puppies online destroying their owners Christmas tree or a true sausage will leave a nice little package under the tree for you to find but the tree didn’t phase Mabel one bit. She liked having the odd nudge of the baubles with her nose, as you do! Christmas Day? She was more excited than I was (and that’s saying something!). She was running round the front room doing zoomies and pushing her nose into every present I opened.
Have I mentioned yet that Mabel uses her nose for everything? She loves to push her nose into everything, from a box to a bag to a armpit, it’s crazy. I’ve never known a dog use their nose as much as Mabel does. She’s what you would call nosy for sure. She has to be the first into everything so she can sniff it out. She loves when the food shopping is delivered, she’ll spend a good half hour sniffing every bag, every item of food in the bag, then takes a sneaky opportunity to run away with a food item in her mouth! She looks innocent but don’t be fooled, she’s a thief as well as a sniffer dog.
What Does Mabel Like?
Well, this dog is into most things to be honest, the biggest being her grub! Mabel loves her food, what dog doesn’t? In particular, she’s loves cooked chicken, carrots, frozen peas, a grain free dental stick, chicken strips and most of all… CHEESE! You can bribe Mabel to do absolutely anything as long as she gets cheese in return. She goes absolutely crazy if you get cheese out the fridge and don’t give her none, she will throw the biggest teenage strop and won’t talk to anyone for hours.
She absolutely loves her toys, especially if they’ve got a leg or arm that she can play tug of war with. She has got three or four toys in particular that she adores, most of them have had to have ‘operations’ as she’s pulled the stuffing out or ripped off a leg, but she loves them (she’s a great destroyer of toys, even though she loves them, 99.9% of the time their missing some kind of limb). It’s so cute to see her walking round, squeaking them in her mouth and digging at them for hours. One way that she likes to wind my mum up? by getting every single toy out of the toy box and throwing them around the front room (basically looks like a bombs gone off). I’m sure she does it on purpose!!
Probably one of Mabels biggest loves in life apart from food? a good old belly rub! You can be minding your own business, when she literally throws herself down in front of you (Have I mentioned shes dramatic?) and rolls onto her back and expects a belly rub instantly. She becomes very vocal if you don’t rub her belly straight away and ends up basically demanding the belly rub haha. She loves it when she’s laying in-between your legs when the recliner is up, she rolls herself over and will lay for hours on her back getting belly tickles!
Another thing… this dog loves a sock! I know, random right? Like with her toys, she loves to play tug of war with a sock, especially if it’s a extra stretchy one which she can really pull on. OR, she loves when you put a few of her littler toys in the sock as she will dig for hours trying to get them back out again, which she always does! I mean, she must go through at least 2 pairs of socks a month for sure. When one pair of socks becomes too destroyed to even have fun with, we give her another. She gets so excited, it melts our hearts!
Finally, cuddles and sleep and lots of it! Although Mabel has her moments when she loves to play but she much prefers being cuddled up on the sofa with us and sleeping. Mabel on average must sleep about 18/19 hours a day! We soon came to realise that most sausages do this, thank god because for a moment, we got worried that she was sleeping to much haha. Like I mentioned above, all I’ve ever wanted is a dog to cuddle with me and I got exactly that. Mabel loves laying underneath my blanket, curled up on my lap or laying besides me having tickles – mind you, who wouldn’t love that life?
What doesn’t Mabel Like?
One thing Mabel really dislikes is being left alone. If any of you have a sausage or know much about them, then you’ll know that a massive sausage dog trait (apart from stubbornness) is anxiety and lots of it. In a way, it’s our own fault as we’ve never left her alone for more than 5 minutes, one of us is always in the house so we’ve never had to. This in turn has made her very anxious when one of us gets ready to leave the house.
Mabel’s biggest dislike of life?… a walk. She is terrified of going for a walk. I know, a dog not liking a walk… crazy right? Well this is another sausage dog trait. Some love walks whilst others hate it. Mabel is riddled with anxiety when it comes to getting her lead out, she ends up throwing up and getting herself into such a state which is super sad to see. So later this year / early next year we’ll be getting a behaviourist to meet Mabel and hopefully turn that around! *fingers crossed*.
A coat. When Mabel does allow someone to take her for a walk, usually she has to wear a coat as she gets cold quickly. So when we put her coat on, even though it fits perfectly, she walks like a sumo wrestler. I’m not joking either, she genuinely walks like the coat is tight and is pushing her legs apart. It’s the funniest thing!
The next big event on our list… Mabel’s first birthday! I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was for this. Mabel absolutely loves a box that she can nosy into and she loves getting a new toy, so we knew that she would thoroughly enjoy her birthday. Which she did! I’ve never seen a dog so happy in all my life. She was like a child at Christmas. All day her tail didn’t stop wagging. She was just so happy, it was lovely to watch. We did go a little OTT, but Mabel is my world and I’d do anything to make her happy.
Oh, did I mention the birthday photo shoot? Well, let’s just say this is something I wanted to do from the moment we got her. I had an image in my head at how I wanted the photos to go but I honestly didn’t think Mabel would play along. She hates putting on a coat, let alone a crown. But… man was I wrong! She loved every minute of having her photos done, don’t get me wrong we had to bribe her a few times with some cheese but I got the photos I’d dreamed of so I can’t complain. She’s a right little poser!
And that brings us to today.
Happy Gotcha Day to my sassy, extremely stubborn, carrot munching, toy destroying, cheese lovin sausage.
This day, a year ago, I could have never expected to feel the love that I did for you the moment you was placed into my arms. You aren’t just a ‘dog’ to me, your my world and have given me a purpose again. You are the light in my darkness and I’ll never be able to put into words how much you’ve saved me.
Mabel Little-Legs Deveson, I love you with every beat of my heart, and more.
I know this was a long post today but I also know how many of you love seeing and hearing about Mabel, so I thought this post would give you, your Mabel fix!
I hope you enjoyed reading all about my little pickle and a over-view of the last year. This is probably one of my favourite blogposts I’ve ever written, looking back at all the memories over the last year, I love it! I feel like this will become a yearly post that I do, sharing what’s happened over the year and seeing if any of her likes & dislikes have changed.
Sending tons of love & hugs to you all as always,
Elle xo
