[Dailydrool] 25 years ago

[Donna Lindy]

On December 24, 1986, my husband Bill had no idea he was opening
the door to 25  years of basset hounds at our house.  My present that
year was two 13 week old litter mates, Chuck and Bob.  We had just
moved into our new house and I just wasn't sure about these cute little
puppies after they chewed the corner of the kitchen cabinets, ate the
wallpaper off the wall and put many, many teeth marks in our new kitchen
chairs . . . of course, in a matter of days, I was hooked  and the rest
is history.

How my first two hounds survived without the advice of the Drool is
probably a miracle - fortunately they were both pretty healthy although
they undoubtedly consumed more rawhide chews than they should
have and we were probably just plain lucky in a few situations.  We
lost Chuck first to cancer on January 3, 1998 - it was the hardest
experience of my life to that point.  Bob and I both became a couple
of lumps on the couch, missing a part of our very souls.

After a couple of months, we went to get Elmo and came home with
Pauline, too. They were 9 mos. and 7 mos. and they added several
years to Bob's life.  We said goodbye to him just one week shy of
his 14th birthday. A year and 3 mos. later, Bill gave me another
basset puppy for Christmas - this was Gracie, our current alpha
hound.  That was 2001 and it was in 2002 that I found and joined
the Daily Drool.  In February of 2003 Gracie's breeder asked us to
take a 13 week old puppy that had been the only puppy in the litter
to survive. He needed to be with a pack and she thought we'd be
perfect.  And so we brought our sweet Dudley home.  Gracie
claimed him the minute he got here and he was everybody's buddy.
Many of you will remember the agonizing week in October of 2007
that ended with Dudley going to the Bridge - I don't think we will ever
get over the loss of this boy his Auntie Jean Harris always said had
the "best basset eyebrows ever" or forget the many kindnesses that
were shown to us during his sudden, brief illness - from the prayer  
vigils
during his surgery (during which Jean sat with me) to the unbelievable
raffles and donations for his astronomical vet bills, Bill and I were
amazed and so grateful for the remarkable power of this list.

Losing Dudley was the temporary end of the "16 paws" and I believe
when I wrote the sad news to the Drool, I said "16 paws no more" . . .
but two months later, I wrote "16 paws again" when we added Bosley
to our little crew.  That was December of 2007 and we rocked along
with our 16 paws until one day in early May of 2010 when Pauline refused
peanut butter - one of her favorite treats.  Seven weeks later, right  
after
Bill's first chemo treatment, we said goodbye our first girl, the one
who had had my heart from the first time I saw her, the one who became
a PW on the Drool, the one whose eye patch hat picture the eye vet still
uses to show that a dog doesn't mind losing her eye, the girl who won
longest ears and biggest paws contests . . . but who was ready to leave
and let me know it was time to let her go.

And so, once again we were 16 paws no more. But after a hard year
with the humans and Pauline, we didn't have the energy to have
another hound.  Then just one year later, in June of this year, we said
goodbye to our dear Elmo, the smooshiest, laziest boy ever. He had
just turned 14 three days before.  So there we were with just 2 basset
hounds, right back where we started in 1986 and again between losing
Bob and getting Gracie.  We're much older now and we had been
thinking it was time to dial it back a bit and live our lives with just
Gracie and Bosley who are both seniors now and pretty calm for the
most part . . . having only 2 hounds was remarkably easy. . .

And then I heard about a little red and white girl named Sunshine . . .
Even though we're not 16 paws again, it's good to have a busy
girl in the house again. Sunny just turned 2 and has us up and moving
again (as in rebuilding fences),Gracie is playing again in spite of her
wonky legs and arthritis and Bosley is finally losing a little weight
because he has to  know what Sunny's doing. We may not be 16
paws, but these 12 paws are keeping the basset crap I've collected
over the years worthwhile and the memories of our precious hounds
at the Bridge alive.  Yep, twenty five years later, life with basset
hounds is still where we want to be.

Donna, Bill and the 12 paws of Gracie, Bosley and Sunny,
forever missing Chuck, Bob, Dudley, Pauline and Elmo