Dachshunds

Dachshunds in these diary passages are not incidental pets: Archie and Amos accompany Andy Warhol through the small, repeated movements of his daily life, from the elevator and breakfast to a country outing. Later, the diary turns to Bill Copley’s dachshund Ludwig, distinguishing him from Tommy, who had been run over.

Archie and Amos in the Daily Routine

Warhol’s weekday routine began after the diary was recorded by phone. He would make or take calls, shower, get dressed, and bring his cherished dachshunds, Archie and Amos, with him in the elevator from the third floor of his house to the basement kitchen. There he had breakfast with his Filipino housekeepers, sisters Nena and Aurora Bugarin. The dogs were part of this ordinary sequence: not an occasional diversion, but companions carried along as the day moved from private rooms into the household’s shared spaces.

After breakfast, Warhol went shopping, usually along Madison Avenue, visiting auction houses, the jewelry district around 47th Street, and Village antique shops. The account places Archie and Amos within the cadence of this carefully maintained routine, although it does not say that they accompanied him on the shopping rounds. A photograph caption separately records Warhol with Archie in the entrance hallway of Andy Warhol’s East 66th Street home, preserving one of the dogs as part of the domestic world surrounding him.

A Country Visit with the Dogs

On a visit to Chadds Ford, Archie and Amos were fed before Warhol and the others set out for a buggy ride. The outing crossed the Brandywine River, which Warhol noted was not very deep. The detail places the dogs within a social visit that included Phyllis Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth, but keeps their role modest and concrete: they were cared for before the excursion began, part of the arrangements of the household rather than participants in the museum visit or press conference that followed.

Ludwig and Tommy

At Bill Copley’s wedding party in 1980, Warhol encountered Ludwig, Copley’s new dachshund. He contrasted Ludwig with little Tommy, who had been run over, but added that Ludwig was nice and fed him so that the dog liked him. The brief episode shifts attention from Archie and Amos as Warhol’s own companions to another person’s dog, while retaining the same practical vocabulary of care: feeding is the gesture through which Warhol establishes a friendly connection with Ludwig.