The Joy of Being a Schnauzer "Parent"

Most endeavors in life, even the most rewarding ones, are a mixture of good moments and bad.

My wife and I, however, found that being the "parents" of a miniature schnauzer was one of those rarities that involves almost all good and no bad.

Murphy Abigail Shuler (1993-2004), the schnauzer who inspires this blog, was an unmitigated joy to have around. Except for a brief bout with coprophagia (quite common in puppies; usually a brief phase), Murphy never caused us a concern--and brightened our lives in ways that I can't begin to put into words.

In fact, we've often said that the only regret we have about our 11 years with Murphy was that we never got to see her as a newborn. We adopted her from a breeder who lived about 20 miles south of Selma, Alabama, and Murphy was the standard eight weeks old when she came into our lives.

But we've often wondered what Murphy and her littermates were like when they were freshly baked--"right out of the oven," if you will. When we imagine that scene, the words "impossibly cute" come to mind. And we recently discovered a couple of videos that confirm our suspicion.

The videos are from a site, davolvoreta.com, which appears to be based in Spain. I say "appears" because it's written in Spanish, and like most Americans, I've become a dunderhead when it comes to other languages.

That's doubly perplexing for me because, at one time, I was more or less fluent in Spanish. In order to get into the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri back in the 1970s, you had to take 13 hours of a foreign language.

Now that I've graduated, I think it's a good requirement because learning another language forces you to really think about how you use your original language. And a journalist should know a thing or two about the use of words.

At the time, however, I suspected the requirement was just a way to weed out candidates for J-school. And it worked. I knew a bunch of people who changed majors because they didn't want to deal with the foreign-language requirement.

As for me, I was just glad that journalism didn't have a math requirement, and I wound up liking foreign languages. I had great Spanish teachers, and they inspired me to take an additional three-hour conversation class--for 16 hours in all. At the time, I could read any Spanish newspaper or magazine and carry on a conversation on most any topic. It pains me to realize how I've let that skill slip--to the point that I can discern the subject matter of davolvoreta.com only because it includes numerous pictures of dogs. (Still pretty clever, aren't I?)

As for schnauzer newborns, check out this video. I think this is a mother standard schnauzer, with her "freshly baked" babies. Looks like they are keeping her busy.



Want your heart to thoroughly melt? Check out this box of miniature schnauzer pups from Spain:



We can't leave this subject without showing you one of the schnauzer's many talents. They can sing. If this doesn't make you smile, your smiler must be broken. Enjoy.