[Dailydrool] Basset puppies and colors and rescue--(long) sorry

[Marie Campbell]

Hi Debbi,
    You know you are absolutely right!!!  I attended the Breeder's Symposium every year at the University of Florida and I met allot of Basset Hound breeders but I never thought to ask them if they had puppies or if I could visit.  I was all about Newfs then.  Although, I have to admit I have a Newfoundland (Landseer) girl arriving from Newfoundland on Saturday!  As I get older, I am thinking I will gradually move out of Newfs and more into Bassets.  I want the opportunity to own and perhaps show a basset girl or boy.  I must say though, I am still hopping to win the lottery so I can adopt another couple of rescue bassets too.  I have gotten allot of happiness and satisfaction from my three rescues.  I also worked allot for Newf rescue over the last 17 years--screening homes, picking up and placing rescues, pulling and delivering Newfs in need of rescue, lots and lots of phone calls....  I just never actually adopted a rescue Newf
 myself.  Crazy, I know but Newf adopters were and are usually plentiful.
    Fancy, my first basset girl that I got from a crazy client changed all that.  I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of pure bred bassets that are in need of rescue and placement.  Newfs never reach those kinds of numbers.  A pure bred Newf in animal control or in a human society is a rarity.  Bassets in animal control and human societies are common place.  That is not to say that I never pulled a pure bred Newf from an animal control, I sure did BUT I had lists and lists of people waiting sometimes more then a year for a rescue Newf.  Consequently, Newfs are often easier to place and the people might be more prepared through self education and many lectures from me when they finally get a rescue Newf then with some other more prevalent breed.  I don't know.  Thank God right now, Newf numbers are down here in Florida.
    Here is another difference I noticed in Newf rescue versus Basset rescue and feel free to correct me.  The usual scenario for Newfs is some jackass buys a large male--they always want a HUGE male--they find out he is more then they can handle.  He is humping the kids, he is heisting his leg on the furniture, he is jumping up on all visitors to the house....  The family never puts him in obedience, they never neuter him, and then they look for a place to dump him.  We mainly get big, intact, black males in rescue. Or in Florida, grandma and grandpa retire to Florida with their northern Newf and they die and the kids are looking to dump their dog.  The dogs are by in large well cared for and well fed but have horrible manners.  
    I did have one really scary rescue.  A women whose husband abused her owned a brown, Newf boy.   One afternoon, he decided she loved her dog more then him and he took a kitchen knife and tried to slit the Newf boy's throat.  Fortunately, Newfs have very thick skin and his guy's knife was not that sharp.  He cut the dog's neck but not seriously.  The wife's mother called me and told me I needed to pick him up immediately because the wife was going into hiding at a women's shelter.  The dog needed to be gone before the husband returned and found her gone.  Ironically, I happened to have a prescreened adoptive lady waiting for a Newf that was a vet tech.  We met the wife's mother at a rest area and picked him up together.  She said the wound was superficial and we took him to the clinic she worked at and had him stitched up.  She was crying the whole time.  She was shocked that people did this to pets. 
    With Bassets, I am noticing a level of abuse, starvation, and neglect that astounds me.  People tossing out a 12 year old beloved pet because she/he has the nerve to get old.  People chaining a Basset in their yard for years and simply deciding not to feed him/her any more.  Brutal physical abuse and neglect.  When I first got Luke, he would literally scream if you approached him too fast which told me someone used to chase him down and beat him.  He once stole a bag of dinner rolls off the counter and I chased him around the kitchen to grab the bag of rolls from him.  When I caught him and the bag, he cowered and screamed like he expected a serious beating.  It broke my heart and makes my eyes tear up just remembering it.  UGH!  I think the sheer number of Bassets makes them need more help.
Marie Campbell