[Dailydrool] Just another day in basset land

[Pat Dill]

 Sometimes living with bassets is harder than others.  I entered the house 
on
 Friday night after a long week at work to the unmistakable smell of eau de
 poo.  Someone couldn't wait for me to get home and had left me a present. 
A
 quick tour of the house showed nothing immediately, until I opened the gate
 that leads to Rosie's area.

 (It might help appreciate the story to know that we have five hounds, four
 of whom stay in the living room/kitchen area during the day and Rosie who 
is
 gated off separately in a bedroom/bathroom area.  Rosie is 15 1/2, totally
 blind, mostly deaf and definitely senile.  She is gated off because if left
 on her own she wanders around bumping into the other dogs and annoying 
them.
 For her own protection, lest they pick on her when we are gone, we gate her
 off by herself.)

 Anyway, when I opened the gate that leads to Rosie's area the smell
 intensified and I soon discovered its source.  Poor Rosie had had a poo
 accident, apparently several hours earlier, and had managed to walk through
 it so many times that it had effectively been painted all over the bedroom
 and bathroom floors (thank goodness no carpet -- all is linoleum or
 laminate).  The fact that Rosie ESPECIALLY hates to step in poo had upset
 her so much that she must have been pacing in the area since it happened,
 futilely trying to get away from the awful poo-on-the-floor and by
 consequence spreading it everywhere and getting it all over herself and the
 multiple dog beds in the area.

 I hurriedly donned my sweats so as not to get poo on my work clothes,
 managed to get all five dogs outside and tackled the mess.  I threw open 
all
 the windows downstairs and turned on all the ceiling fans to disperse the
 smell.  I even opened the French doors in the living room to let out the
 odor.  The hounds, of course, couldn't understand why I wasn't letting them
 back in and feeding them their supper, so the mopping was accompanied by
 much barking, whining and door-scratching.  THREE moppings later, I decided
 it was acceptable to let everyone in and get started on the nightly 
feeding.
 I gated everyone off in their respective areas, prepared their meals (to
 horrendously loud barking by this time) and was just starting to dole out
 meds when who should appear at the door than my next-door neighbor with her
 two grandchildren, all in costume and looking for Halloween treats.

 Well, I can only imagine what my neighbor must think.  There I was, in
 sweats, dress shoes and my work jewelry, all the doors and windows on the
 ground floor open wide on October 30th, all the ceiling fans making their
 breeze, five hounds segregated in various rooms in the house, all barking
 furiously at the "intruders."  No doubt some lingering eau de poo also
 remained.

 I greeted them an graciously as possible and ran to get the Halloween 
candy,
 still in the bag.  You guessed it. In my haste to open it, the bag split 
and
 candy flew everywhere (chocolate, of course).  I raced around like a crazy
 person trying to grab it all off the floor before Sampson (fortunately the
 only dog in the room) could, still being gaped at by my neighbors.  I
 recovered as best I could, distributed generous amounts of candy (that had
 NOT fallen on the floor), complimented their costumes and did my best to
 appear perfectly normal.

 Thankfully, they took pity on my plight and stayed only a few minutes 
before
 heading off to the next household.  They may have gotten more or better
 treats elsewhere, but I bet they didn't visit any more interesting places
 that night!

 Pat