[Dailydrool] teh story of how we adopted Hector

[Menzie Campbell]

I know not everyone here "does" Facebook, where I posted this story
last night, so I thought I would repost it here.  Several of you on
the Drool were at this Bash in 2002, and might remember this
yourselves.  :)

So, the story of how I ended up adopting Hector. (For those who missed
the initial post, he passed away Friday, peacefully in his sleep).
(warning, LONG). In October 2002, we were living in Georgia, and I
took in this skinny, allergy-ridden young basset named Bowser. The
woman who turned him in had three kids and worked two jobs. They lived
in an apt., and Bowser/Hector spent about 18 hours a day in a crate.
She admitted to me later (when she called 3 days later trying to get
me to give him back, hell no) that her four-year-old had "teased"
Hector while Hector was in his crate. For the whole rest of his life,
Hector was very tense around preschool age boys.

Anyway, he first went to a new foster mom, but she called freaking out
after two days because Hector had snapped at her toddler. She dropped
him off at one of the vets our rescue uses. BHRG asked me to take him
and evaluate him because we didn't have kids. When I picked him up at
the vet, he had a big red "BITE RISK" tag on his file, and he was
wearing one of those metal pinch collars, like they put on mastiffs or
fighting dogs. He was very subdued - head down, sad looking. The lady
who gave him up had told me "you have to keep the pinch collar on him,
or he gets all crazy." Idiot woman.

The first thing I did, still there in the exam room, was take off the
pinch collar. And he came suddenly alive. It was like I hit an ON
switch! I took him home, and showed him the dog door and the yard. He
was amazed. He was obviously very under-stimulated. He was let out of
his crate so little that when I got him, his nails curled under and he
was walking on the tops of them. So anyway,he spent the next week
doing nothing but racing through the house, out the dog door, around
the yard, and back in, yelling at the top of his lungs the whole time.
Run! Jump! Bark! (That's how he got the name "Hector", from hectoring
us with his barking).

Skip forward a month, to BHRG's annual picnic and fundraiser in early
November. Hector was still a wild and crazy adolescent male basset. He
would poop in the house and then eat it; he would pee on the floor and
then lick it up. We finally decided that he was trying to hide the
evidence. He probably couldn't help but mess in his crate at the apt.,
and then got in trouble for it. He would steal food off your plate
while you were sitting there at the table! His bark was so loud it
made my computer screen shimmy (no lie). He was a nightmare! BUT - he
was so sweet, and just craved love and would come to you and moan and
grown to be petted.

He had on his "Adopt Me!" bandanna at the Bash, like all the other
foster dogs. So this couple met him, and thought he was beautiful
(which, duh!) and wanted to adopt him. I said OK. They went over to
the adoption table to sign the paperwork. I started to cry (I never
cry). Noel took a look at my face, and said "you want to keep him,
right? Go ahead." So I RAN over to the adoption table and said to
Julie (BHRG's President) "They can't have him, I'm adopting him, give
me the adoption contract!" That was 10 years ago.

-- 
Menzie Campbell
Save a Life - Don't Shop, ADOPT!
Owned by Pw. Annabelle ATB, Hector TVL, Barney, Bozlee, Millie and now
Pippa and Bonnie (the sisters)