Hi, Mike...

 MR@>      When You said that, I thought the same thing You did. I have no
 MR@> proof either, but it does make sense. Some of those household ants are
 MR@> attracted to grease or sugar. If the dog is spilling sugar in it's
 MR@> urine, like a diabetic, it may very well be diabetes. I have never
 MR@> heard this before, but I don't believe those indoor pad things have
 MR@> been around that long either. I wish them luck. A check at the vets
 MR@> would probably clear up some things.

  As noted, the vet my wife and I had to take care of our dachshunds (we
only had one at a time), noted that diabetes is quite common in older dogs.
In humans, if they're spilling a lot of ketones in the urine (my late wife 
was diabetic), that can be dangerous.

  We did give him insulin shots, but he became resistant to it...then went
blind from the glaucoma and cataracts. Yet, he had a working nose, and a
full set of teeth up to the day we put him down (you could tell he was
suffering terribly). I cried like a baby for 15 minutes that day, but we
knew it was the only humane thing to do.

  We got a replacement dachshund 3 months after putting this one down, but
I re-homed him the day my wife died almost 7 years ago.

  She preferred male dogs...and even though they are constantly marking
their territory by urinating on everything, they are much cheaper to neuter,
than it is to spay a bitch.

  Some of the funnier moments, though, were as follows:

1) The first one, Fritz, was a reddish brown dachshund. The three instances
I still chuckle about are as follows:

a) You don't give dogs chocolate, as the cocoa is poison. But, you CAN give 
them things like green beans and carrots. With dachshunds, they think they
are getting a real treat, but it'll help them lose weight. Anyway, my wife 
had put some green beans down in Fritz' dish...he walked up to them, took a 
sniff, turned up his nose, and walked off. She groaned "Oh, great!! I forgot 
to salt them!!". Upon hearing this, I asked if the dog wanted a bottle of 
red wine to go with his beans, and my wife snapped "He ain't gettin' none of 
my Jamaica White Rum"!! :) 

b) Fritz preferred to be a "nude-nick"...hating to wear any sort of clothing.
I did get a picture of him with a little dachshund shirt on, and added the
caption "Too Sexy For My Shirt"...truth was, he was too fat. 

c) One day, after getting out of the shower, I didn't even see the little
booger down there, then the next thing you know, he licked "a certain area".
I yelled "Fritz, you horny thing"...all he did was wag his tail.  When I
asked the veterinarian why dogs do that, he said "he's a dog"...to which I
said "He don't look like no darn cat, doc"...to which I was told "Correct...
that'll be $150 please". 

  His real name was "Harveys Fritz Kreisler", a classical music violinist, 
but as noted, his given name was Fritz. My wifes maiden name was "Harvey".

2) The second one, Slinky, was black and tan with silver dapple. I understand
that dapple is extremely rare, like 1 out of 100 whelpings...and that the
dapple dogs can have their own set of problems. The two instances that
I still chuckle about are as follows:

a) When we took him back to the breeder (who was 35 years older than me to
the day...I think she died recently, but her daughter handles things now),
Slinky decided to "hump" another male dog (a dominance move??), and he had a 
"Viagra moment".  The look on his face was like "Daddy, I have a problem. 
Will you help me fix it??", to which my reply was "Hell, no!!".  I was so 
embarrassed, though; yet my wife and the breeder were laughing uncontrollably.

b) When my wife and I were to go off on a weekend, we took him to this place
called Briarwood Animal Clinic in the western part of Little Rock, Arkansas. 
They offer both a full service veterinary hospital, as well as grooming and 
boarding. Anyway, when the female vet tech saw him, she fell in love with him,
saying "Oh, he's adorable!!". She then asked (meaning for the dog) "Are we
neutered??" (he was a few weeks shy of being able to be neutered). Without
missing a beat, my wife popped off with "No, but my husband is"...the vet
tech replied "Yeah, mine is too". I was blushing like you wouldn't believe. :P

  His real name was "Stouts Slinky Sausage", but his given name was Slinky. 

  Pictures of both are at http://www.wx1der.com/dog.htm

MR@> ... Public Restroom-The only place a flush beats a full house

  Stolen tagline!! :)

Daryl

... A male dog is truly an S.O.B. -- and acts like one, too!
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
                   
--- Virtual Advanced Ver 2 for DOS 
 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS (1:19/33)