[Dailydrool] How we ended up with a Bassett

[Alla Babushkina]

Hi everyone,
I've been reading all the stories of how people ended up living with a  
Bassett, and thought I would share mine.
When my husband and I first moved to Toronto from Japan, we ended up  
staying in my mother's basement for two years. My chilhood dog, a  
golden retriever named Toby (who, I was told, was a far better child  
than any of the human ones my mom had ;) had passed away, and my  
mother staunchly refused to get another dog. However, she was fine  
with it if I got a dog she could occassionally take care of....I think  
everyone knows where this is going. My mother had her heart set on a  
mini-Schnauzer, so we brought home a puppy from a breeder, who  
promptly won my mother's heart and became her dog. When we moved out,  
Kara stayed with my mother.
Well, we still didn't have a dog of our own, even though we had the  
time and space. We started researching breeds, not wanting to get a  
dog quite as yappy as the mini-Schnauzer. Most of all, we definitely  
knew we did not want a puppy. We briefly considered Bassetts before  
deciding that the housebreaking and howling would drive us up the  
wall. But all our plans to adopt a dog were frustrated; either the dog  
was gone when wr contacted the agency, or it needed very specific  
accommodation we couldn't provide, or the afency required our  
(practically absentee) landlord to provide a letter of reccommendation  
even though we couldn't get him to so much as answer his phone. So,  
long story short, we saw an ad on Craigslist about a five month old  
Bassett that needed a good home. We went to see her, even though  
neither of us was sure we wanted a Bassett. The owner told us that he  
had purchased her from a pet store a month earlier, but had realized a  
bit too late that he didn't want a puppy. Then ge opened her crate,  
and Dascha waddled out, smelling of excrement (our groomer told us  
later that she had never been washed and still had placental matter  
caught under her fur). She came up to me , looked at me with her big  
somber eyes, and then jumped up to lick every inch of my face. And of  
course we brought her home, and none of the Bassett  
"problems" (shedding, toilet-training issues, loudness) matter to us  
at all. One day, we will extend our family and get a second dog, and  
it will also be a Bassett. I can't imagine a more perfect breed.
Dascha sends her drool to everyone in need.
Alla, caretaker of Dascha, who's looking at me so innocently now, even  
though she knows full well that nipping my heels is not ok!

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