[Dailydrool] Watson paws in

[Katie Strobel]

Hello Droolers!
It's Katie writing in for Watson - he's busy with a rambunctious and
dripping wet basset 500 right now, so he asked me as he flew by if I
would write in and offer our opinions on a few topics. Just in case
anyone was wondering, he seems to be feeling much better now. He had
three days of good rest, and then has been on rimadyl and tramadol for
a week now. It's been raining here for about an hour, and Watson has
been outside for about 45 minutes of that time racing through the
backyard. He comes and does a lap through the house every once in a
while just to make sure there's enough mud on the floor to turn my
ears red. The vet was right- the limping was just a strain, and it
seems to be healed now. We're almost done with meds and I would really
like Watson to remember what life is like off of pain killers.....I
hope he's not addicted...is that even possible?

On laundry: Watson LOVES dirty socks and shoes....he has no interest
in clean ones, he only wants the stinky ones. You can always tell when
he's got a dirty sock in his mouth because he gets one and runs in the
opposite direction bouncing along the hallway towards the backyard.
Since he's feeling no pain, he's faster than he's ever been before
with a nice reinforced knee and enough pain medications to sedate a
horse. I think the sleepiness from the morning dose of pain killers
wears off around 3 and the evening dose doesn't come until 8 so that
means a good 5 hours of craziness to endure before we can put him back
in la-la land. When he gets a sock in his mouth you have to cut him
off at the doggy door or the sock's history. When we were in Argentina
we had a daily reminder every morning of Watson because every single
pair of our socks had little tiny Watson teeth sized holes in them -
we missed him so much that we wore the socks anyway.

On shedding: Watson just finished molting from his rear end. I had to
chase him around with a brush the other day because it was getting
ridiculous. He HATES to be brushed and will do just about anything to
get away from the brush - it makes for an interesting grooming
session. We bathe Watson about every month so that also helps with the
shedding. This summer Watson's declared war on the hose, and he
regularly soaks himself in the sprinklers and then comes and rolls and
rubs all over the carpet so that helps get rid of loose hair too. For
the person with the 6-month old puppy, I would only bathe them once
every 2 weeks. If you bathe them too much, they're skin dries out and
you get major itchiness and dander issues. Watson never shedded up
until about May of this year when he was a year and a half old - I
would not worry too much about no shedding...you'll get your fix down
the road - trust me.

On alcohol: Watson is a booze hound too - he's never gotten too much,
but he's always after bottles and cups at our parties. My parents have
a huge summer party every August, and last year was when we discovered
Watson's preference for Corona or red wine. He walks around and tips
over cups and bottles slurping up whatever he can. Luckily, we caught
him tipping over empties so there wasn't much left for him. Now we
warn guests and watch Watson like a hawk at parties. If he misbehaves
he goes in the crate for the evening - I don't need anymore vet
bills....

On cold weather endurance: We live in Colorado, and Watson LOVES the
snow. He doesn't require any sort of coat or other protection. When he
was a tiny puppy, he got cold on potty breaks at night, and he would
shiver - that's his indicator that its cold - he comes inside and
shivers in front of the fireplace....We have a doggy door, and he
spends most of his time inside. He doesn't really get noticeably
fluffier or anything, but he does love it out there, and seems to
adjust just fine to the snow. When we took him to Estes Park up high
in the mountains on New Years, our only issue was that his paws would
get cold. If we go there this year, we'll get him booties and maybe a
sweater - just to be safe.

We've just entered the champion sleeper calendar contest too. It's our
first Basset-related fundraiser. Being a student, there's not much
extra houndie fundraising support money around, but we couldn't
resist. If 5 dollars is affordable for us, then I'm sure we'll have
plenty of competition from other champion sleepers too. We're just
happy to finally contribute to a worth cause.

Alright - that's all for now - I should probably go dry that hound off
before he completely destroys the carpet.....
Katie and Watson (wheeee!)