As to Cecilie's jokes on the subject of babies there is nothing to the fore. We have no prospects of any human infancy, so we must do the best we can with dogs. We have another now, just six weeks old, a funny little beast, called Peps or "Striezel" because he looks like a puppy from a Striezel stall. He is better than the last, though it is a bad business that we have to put up with such mindless creatures. I would much rather have a Maxel, but that could only happen once in the world.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 73