Ten years ago in Rome

Tags

Capena, Dr Massimo Buzzanca, Italy, Rome, Wire hair

Today on FB I had a reminder of 10 yrs ago, showing a photo of two little puppies about 6 weeks old.

The 26 April 2009 we drove to Capena which is 30 minutes North of Rome. It is pretty straight forward taking Via Nomentana going North from our house on Via Dei Villini and then joining the SS-4 which is the ancient Via Salaria (Salt Road) on the way we will past some interesting site like the old Rome Airport of the 1920’s Roma-Urbe and then joining the old Via Tiberina at Prima Porta and going North still until the round about second exit and Capena is just further down the road. At this point we are in the countryside and it is green and dotted with nice houses.  Our destination was the farm of Dr Massimo Buzzanca and his wife Tiziana.

Via Tiberina is a very ancient Roman road from 396 BC and don’t be surprise to see around Settebagni and Capena a lot of prostitutes all decked out sitting on a sofa by the side of the road. We would learn later that a lot of those prostitutes were in fact nuns trying to make ends meet. Many came to Italy from far away impoverished countries and the Cardinal who runs the convents for his National congregations often don’t have the money to supplement all the needs of their priests and nuns, so they get a night job. Pretty amazing because the Vatican does not help them financially. Prostitution is illegal in cities but not on the highway between towns. But I digress…

We had met them some months prior when Nicky and Nora were just a few days old. In Italy when you buy a pet they are microchipped by Law at the point of purchase and this being Italy, the government department responsible for the registration of all animals has forms to fill out and a few months down the road, you will have to go collect the formal registration etc. You cannot name your pet whatever name you choose this is Italy and Style comes into play, by Law letters are assigned to a group of days in the year and so in our case that day the letters were F and E. So Nicky was christened Fantastico Nicky and Nora, Eleonora di Capena.

Nicky and Nora are very different in character, Nicky is a week younger than Nora and he is a show dog by pedigree and family lineage. Nora is a tracking and hunting dog on her family lineage. Meaning that Nora has always been our guard dog and early warning system whereas Nicky is a beach boy loving the sunshine and going through life as if he is on a walkway with lots of paparazzi.

On the drive back, Will sat on the back seat with Nora and Nicky. Nora was nervous about leaving the farm and her relatives whereas Nicky whined non-stop in his little whiny puppy voice. We discovered quickly that we could not take them together to the Vet clinic. We could walk them together in Rome but once in Canada that became impossible.

Imagine 10 years already, how time flies.

This photo was taken in our den at home on Via dei Villini. Nicky is on the left. They do not have their signature collars yet sent to us as a gift by our friend Cecilia H.

 

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Happy Birthday!

Tags

Birthday, Capena, dachshunds, Rome, Via dei Villini

This week marks the 10th Birthday of Nicky and Nora, born in Capena, Italia in Febbraio   2009. Capena is a little town famous for a place of exile where the great Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote letters on Friendship and Old age in 58 BC. It is also the area where Livia wife of Augustus lived in old age in her great palace.

Nora was born 5 days before Nicky and they both have different sets of parents.  Nora comes from a line of European champion hunting/tracking dachshunds and Nicky from a line of champion show dogs like his father.

Here is Will in February 2009 in Capena in the room where they were born at the house of Dr Massimo and his wife Tiziana. See how small they both are, their eyes are still closed.

We saw them at 10 days and they came to live with us at 7 weeks. As we drove back into the City, Nicky was in the back of the car with Will and Nora and he was whimpering all the way.

They lived the first 2 years of their lives in Rome on Via dei Villini and then immigrated to Canada when we left.

Nicky on the sofa in our den at home in Rome

Nicky at 2 in the morning Sun on Via Dei Villini

Nora 

Nora in Ottawa, always keeping an eye out, just watching

Left to right, Nicky and Nora on the sofa

 

Left to right Nora and Nicky 

I am the personal attendant to Nicky

Tags

Capena, dachshunds, Dr. Buzzanca, Italy, Roma

We have had Dachshunds for 26 years now, the first two where a smooth hair female and the other was a long hair male. In 2009 we got our two wire hair Dachshunds in Rome, they are not related. This breed is known for being stubborn and controlling, they always try to control the situation and see how far they can push things.

Our Nicky who is 7 years old now comes from a line of show dogs, his father was Hungarian-Italian, National Champion in Italy and also in the EU. Nicky is very clever and calculating, he only weighs 7 Kg and is a miniature Dachshunds but that does not stop him.

Like dog of this breed he has loads of personality and is very different from Eleonora (Nora) our female Dachshund whose comes from a line of Champion Boar hunting family. She has the hunter instinct, is very determined and independent.

Here is Nora watching the park across the street for anything that might need her to raise the alarm, which she does with regularity.

Both of them speak, using facial expressions, looks and an endless modulation of whines, grunts, puffing through the nose, low growls, barking, paw stomping, to signal what they expect from us.

Meal time is a fix time exercise, God help me if I am late or forget, Nicky becomes agitated and you feel he is upset and will complain to management for poor service. Nora will let him do the circus number but you can tell she too is none too happy about tardiness. Both are walked separately because of question of the order of precedence and who leads, it is complicated.  Dachshunds are very difficult to train as dogs, they can easily be trained to track and hunt from birth, which they do naturally as it is a breed characteristic. But the other stuff house dogs do, they don’t.

With Nicky, he does not like to walk, so we do not go out for a walk, we simply go out for a simple do my business here and here and back in the house we go. If I want to go further, I have to carry him, put him down and then he will walk back quickly home. You may wonder well what if you don’t carry him, Nicky sits down and simply proceeds to ignore me completely. Treats don’t work, he does not walk, how difficult is that to understand.

Nora on the other hand loves to walk, run, jump and use her nose as a radar, sniff out things, run after the big black Crows, we have a lot of them and they are an aggressive bird. On the other hand Nicky ignores it all, as if he is above it all.  He also does not like to go out after dark, too scary, or if it rains or snows, no not going out unless an umbrella is provided. Try moving a miniature Dachshund, Nicky can make himself weigh 10 tons simply by his will power.

The Farm in Capena, minutes from Rome, where Nicky and Nora were born in 2009, owned by the well known Veterinarian Massimo Buzzanca and his spouse Tiziana Tola.

 

Plum Pudding Making Season

Tags

Canada., Capena, Casa degli Orsi, Christmas, dachshunds, Giorgio Porcino, Lise Thomsen, Massimo Buzzanca, Plum Pudding, Tiziana Tola, XMAS

Before we get to the topic in my title, a little bit of news, the two Hounds who live with us are in training. I know they are 7 years old and have been to school before, lots of trainers and lots of lessons. But you see Dachshunds are very smart, in fact a lot smarter than the average human, they know what button to push to get what they want. What do they want you ask, well it’s simple, take Fantastico Nicky, he wants a cookie and to sleep all day in bright sunshine, he is our Beach boy. As for Eleonora di Capena, AKA, Nora all she wants is to do as she pleases and run the show and get everyone to do what she wants. Tell her anything and she looks at you with this expression of You talking to me? You want me to do what? Don’t think so. If you scold her, well she puts on the sad eyes and of course you feel bad right away. She wins, now give me a cookie she says.

So when it comes to training, this time we have a fine trainer who is tough and this is boot camp. Nicky does not like it, not enough cookies, in fact he never asks me for a cookie because he knows I won’t give him one, but he gets his treats from Will who is overtly generous. Nicky is a little monkey, he will do just about anything for a cookie. Nora is coming around but we do have to repeat a lot, it’s like Oh I forgot I was suppose to do this. Am I suppose to do this all the time? Very willful and stubborn but then again this is typical Dachshund mentality.

We have had Dachshunds for 25 years now. Bundnie was a short hair, brown coffee colour, this is what Bundniya means in Egyptian Arabic, she was born in Cairo.  Then we had Reesie who was born in Chicago and was a long hair, quite beautiful and deaf. He came with us to Rome.

After Reesie died in December 2008, he was 17 years old, we had a year with no dogs at home. Then in late February 2009 we went just outside of Rome to Capena to the farm of Dr Massimo Buzzanca and his wife Tiziana Tola named La Casa degli Orsi (the house of Bears)  there we met new born Nora and Nicky, both are Wire Hair Dachshunds. http://www.ilbassottotedesco.com/chi-siamo/

Dr. Massimo Buzzanca at his farm, Capena is the area where Cicero went into exile for a few years and where the Summer Villa of Livia aka Julia Augusta, spent her retirement after the death of her husband Emperor Augustus. 

Wire Hair Dachshunds are great dogs, we have had a lot of fun with them. Nicky and Nora came back with us to our home in Rome some 6 weeks later when they were old enough to leave their mother. Dr. Buzzanca and his spouse are well known in Italy in show dog circles and in the pure bred Dachshund circles, they specialize on standard, miniature and dwarf size Wire Hair Dachshunds. Their house is full of ribbons and trophies won at numerous competitions. Nora’s Mom was a Italian National Champion Hunting dog, Nicky’s father was a Italian Champion Show dog, these character traits appear in both their personalities. This is why we say that Nicky is on the Runway of Life whereas Nora is the rough and tumble hunter of the Forest.

Cucciolo Bassotto Tedesco a Pelo Duro (Dachshund puppies). In Italian they are called German Basset Hounds, they are part of the Basset family.

On the day we went to Capena to fetch them, Nicky whimpered all the way to Rome. it is only a 25 minute ride but nonetheless what drama. They have been with us ever since travelling around the world.  In Rome we had a good Vet, Dr. Giorgio Porcino, we also had a trainer Lise Thomsen. It seems being more adult now, Nicky and Nora are more incline to follow the training, we hope, but then we indulged them quite a bit and they like it that way.

Today Friday 20 November we are still enjoying warm weather and bright sunshine, apparently it will be like this until early December, great news. The first Sunday in Advent is 29 November. So Will has decided to make a Plum Pudding for Christmas and will follow a recipe we like a lot, that of the Plum Pudding prepared for the table of King George V (1865-1936). So I am off to buy all the various ingredients so Will can make it. We also decided that this year for Christmas we will have roast Goose, which is much easier to prepare than turkey. Now I will have to enquire from one of the farmers in the valley around Ottawa, if they have goose.

So I went to the Bulk Barn where they sell all the ingredients needed for the Plum Pudding, I got Prunes, Currants, Raisins, Sultanas, Blanched chopped Almonds, Mixed Candied Peel, Dark Brown Sugar,a lemon, Suet which is not Lard or Crisco, that I got at the Butcher Shop, grocery stores do not sell Suet. I also needed one can of New Castle Brown Ale, all part of the recipe.

We are only 35 days away for the big day!!!! But contrary to what a lot of people say about the Holidays, I am not stressed at all. No gifts to buy, no family do to attend, I do not have crazy uncles or obnoxious relatives or in-laws. We have not done a family thing in 35 years, but I do have good memories of the old gathering when we did have them.

So I am starting to feel a little bit of the Spirit.