[Dailydrool] Abbey, Today's Calendar Photo

[Pat Dill]

We were delighted to turn the page and see our Abbey's photo today.  We adopted Abbey through Tri-State Basset Hound Rescue.  Her family of 12 years had gone into serious financial distress, were losing their home, and could no longer care for her.  When the owner brought her to our house, Abbey knew that something was seriously wrong and refused to get out of the van.  He scooped her up, said a loving goodbye and sadly drove away.

Fortunately, resiliency is one of those great basset traits.  Once Abbey got used to the idea of living somewhere else, she was as happy-go-lucky as most any basset.  She loved having basset playmates, quickly staked out her territory under the dining room table during meals, and delighted in going outside to woo-woo for the sheer joy of it (much to our dismay, living as we did at the time in a Long Island neighborhood where excessive barking is frowned upon).  Abbey had had untreated bladder stones for so long that even after we had them surgically removed her bladder was weak.  As a result she had to wear diapers for the rest of her life.  She never tried to remove them, never objected to them being put on or taken off, and seemed to understand that they were what allowed her freedom in the house.  When we moved to Western PA, well, she loved that, too!  No one cared if she woo-wooed late at night, the bigger yard gave her more room to wander, and there were lots of new people to meet.

The only dog she ever met whom she didn't like was Rosie, our blind Jamboree basset.  We always suspected that it was the combination of Rosie's erratic wanderings, bumping into everything, along with Abbey's advancing senility.  When she finally departed for the Rainbow Bridge at the ripe old age of 16, she may have been extremely senile, but was still supremely happy with life.

The photo shows her resting in her "drawer-bed" after an exhausting day at a Tri-State event.

Abbey is the poster child for adopting senior hounds.  We had four wonderful years with her, and having her in our family enriched our lives forever.

Pat Dill & Carol Sharp
Proud to be loved by Rosie, Sadie, Bailey and Sampson
Benji, Murphy, Taffy, Misha-Herald, Abbey, Kelly, Maxwell and Hugh ATB
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20081124/dec538cf/attachment-0002.htm>