[Dailydrool] Final response

[Riche Churchill]

I really am going to shut up about the responding-to-drool-questions 
subject after this, but do have to say I have high hopes people will 
continue (or resume) answering to the list when questions arise. Surely 
everyone who has been on this list like forever is aware that they or 
someone has really helped someone else. Really! And have educated 
newcomers who (gasp) bought their Basset from a pet store or puppy mill. 
(I recall that sometimes the response to this admission incurred rather 
nasty comments, and some of those newcomers immediately vanished...and 
how sad is that? Not only for the new Basset owner, BUT 
possibly/probably for the Basset itself.)

On a side note, my mother was a breeder-owner-exhibitor in the 50's and 
Miss Know-It-All (me) went to California and bought her very own "show 
puppy" so as to exhibit my vast knowledge and superiority over Mama. 
Well, in the first place, the puppy was pure crap as far as being show 
quality (but costly) AND, more importantly, actually was the product of 
a puppy mill. I didn't know it then, and it was a hard lesson learned 
the hard way -- but just because people show dogs and have a room full 
of trophies does not necessarily mean they don't run a puppy mill on the 
side. NOT ALL OF THEM, but definitely some of them. And you will never 
ever know which except through experience (and I mean real experience, 
not gossip and outright lies). On the other hand (and this makes me feel 
SO good...) my mother's first Basset ALSO was crappy quality, innocently 
purchased from a very well--known, very successful champion-maker, who 
also produced litter after litter of pet puppies for profit. A lesson 
learned too late.

Finally, while I'm all in favor of being provided helpful websites, 
there probably are a lot of people like myself who are not helped by 
being told to go to the archives. If you recall my first post, I 
couldn't remember the name of the disease... so how was I going to look 
for it in the archives???? And along with having CRS, am not 
particularly computer savvy, either -- just ask my geek friend/savior 
who patiently walks me through the same problem this week that I had 
last week but forgot how to fix.

That's all, folks
Riche