[Dailydrool] Summer, heat and the worst case scenario

[Heidi Sarver]

Jumping on the heat lecture band wagon, and given how horribly hot it  
has been these last couple weeks I supply you with a story of my first  
basset, Walter.  I found the DD long after he left me and I'm not sure  
I told his story--it suits the subject line to a "T."

(Please note, this is awful and you may not want to read on).

I got Walter when he was a little over of a year old.  I lost my baby  
at the age of 22 months.  I lost him to summer heat.

I was teaching a workshop and a friend, a dog owner, someone I trusted  
implicitly, said he would take care of Walter so I didn't have to  
board him.  I figured "great--a money saver."  My friend owned a dog  
and 2 cats and they were always happy and healthy.  This was the  
perfect solution.

What I did not know was that my friend had to work that day---a full  
work day of 10 hours.  He lived in Philadelphia, had a yard, and  
didn't have air conditioning in his apartment.  It was the hottest day  
in July that year; warnings were on tv all day to take care of the  
elderly and the animals, etc.  And I'll never forget the day because  
it was the same day JFK, Jr. died in his plane crash near Martha's  
Vineyard.

You see, my friend merely tied his dog up to the tree, left water  
bowls around the yard, and he dog was always perfectly happy.  His dog  
was a shepherd/chow mix, not a basset.  So he tied Walter up on the  
other tree and off he went to work.  I did not know any of this.  I  
had dropped Walter off the night before and off I went to teach.

I got the worse phone call I ever received in my life at 6 PM.  Walter  
had died of heat stroke.  You see, when Walter wanted attention, or  
food, or anything, he would go into the kitchen and turn his water  
bowl over, flooding the floor.  Walter wanted out of the heat so he  
turned over all of the water bowls and buckets in the yard and barked  
himself to death.

My friend was no longer my friend after that, in fact he was arrested  
for animal cruelty when his neighbor called the police about a dead  
dog in his yard.

I never knew what kind of basset Walter was going to be--he left far  
to young.  But I do know that I learned the most lasting and  
devastating lesson an animal lover can ever learn.  He did teach me  
one other thing however: he taught me how much I love this breed.

So take care of you bassets everyone---don't ever live through what I  
did.

--heidi, della, guinness and oscar the cats
--buford atb
--walter atb