[Dailydrool] Young Charlie continues to puzzle

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Well, we had a full and sociable weekend, and our Elsinore is still  
recovering from it all. Lisa Potter and her basset Buster came to  
stay with us on Friday night and then we went to the Belly Rubs  
Basset Rescue Tennessee Waltz picnic on Saturday where we saw more  
Droolers. To cap the day off, I actually won something in the silent  
auction. That's never happened before.

Elsinore used to be just awful at on-leash basset events. She'd tug  
and pull and insist on going one way when I wanted to go another. As  
she's aged, however, she seems to have become more resigned to being  
attached to me. Perhaps I don't embarrass her nearly as much as I  
used to? She spent most of the picnic alternating between lying on  
the cool cement floor of the picnic shelter (it was a beastly hot  
day) and trying to get other people to pat her. She can never get  
enough pats. When I got her home at the end of the day, which  
included a post-picnic visit to the nearby dog park, she ate her  
dinner and put herself to bed in her crate for the night. She hasn't  
been crawling out of her skin with pent-up energy yesterday or today  
either. I expect she'll be back to normal by tomorrow, though.

Young Charlie did not accompany us to the picnic because I was afraid  
it'd be too much for him with the way he's been feeling lately. He  
did fine with his lively houseguest, though he didn't actually play  
with Buster. He was social, however, and seemed to enjoy Buster's  
company. But when it came time to leave for the picnic and I reached  
up to get Elsinore's leash, Charlie didn't make a fuss. He saw me  
take his leash off the hook first, get Elsinore's, and then put his  
leash back on the hook again, and he didn't cry, wiggle, dance  
hopefully around my feet, or seem to care in any way that it looked  
as if he was going to be left behind from something that felt like it  
could be a lot of fun. He also didn't follow us out the back door and  
down to the gate to the car. Instead, he stayed in the house and  
actually went to bed as we went out the door. That was pretty  
disturbing.

But then after my shower that evening I heard a noise out in the  
hallway. I opened the door to see young Charlie tearing up a paper  
towel tube. I'd put the tube in his toy basket several weeks ago to  
see how long it'd take him to find it and to see if he'd then feel  
like destroying it. Last night was the night. Not only did Charlie  
tear it to pieces with his old twinkle in his eyes, but he also  
wanted to play keep away and chase with it. He seemed more lively  
yesterday as well. It's hard to tell what he's like now because he's  
sleeping, but then so are Elsinore and their new houseguest Chloe,  
who's staying with us while her human's on vacation.

I really don't know what to think. This happened several weeks ago,  
too. Charlie stopped being subdued for a few days and even brought me  
a toy to play with, which made me think the worm medication had done  
the trick. But then he went back to being subdued and somewhat self- 
isolating. I don't know if that pattern is going to continue this  
time or not. One and a half more weeks until we hear the thyroid test  
results. If those are fine, then, well, we'll cross that bridge if it  
comes.

Elizabeth