[Dailydrool] Linus ATB with Sadie ATB

[Mary Ann Thomas]

A song from the heart, truly felt.  RIP Linus.


On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 10:24 PM, lea pierce <leapierce at leapierce.com>wrote:

> The DAILY DROOL
> An internet mail list designed to
> entertain and inform basset hounds
> and their people.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
>            ----
>            /    \__
> |\         /    @   \
> \ \_______|    \  .: O
>  \      ##|    | \__/
>   |    ####\__/   \
>   /  /  ##       \|
>  /  /__________\  \
>  L_JJ           \__JJ
> -----------------------------
> ***Secret Pawtner Info***
> http://lists.dailydrool.org/listinfo.cgi/secretpawtner-dailydrool.org
>
> Daily Drool Website:
> http://www.dailydrool.com
>
> Vote for Basset of the Week:  http://www.dailydrool.com/botw.html
>
> Dictionary of Common Drool Terminology:
> http://mysite.verizon.net/msrandolph/
>
> Daily Drool Archives:
> http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/
>
> Old Daily Drool Archives:
> http://oldarchives.dailydrool.org/dailydrool/
>
> Dear Droolers,
>
> I'm writing tonight not for myself and the Adm. (thank God)--yet I am, in
> a sense. I am writing in honor of my good friends JoAnn Beebee and her
> husband Scott, both activists in Golden Gate Basset Rescue.They had to send
> their old boy Linus to the Bridge tonight.
>
> It was time. It was right. It sucks.
>
> Linus was a fine old fella, at 14; but the last year or so was hard. A bit
> over a year ago, he lost his life-mate, Sadie; She went to the bridge. Ever
> after, he would go out to the backyard and lie in the spot Sadie laid in
> for years. And they say dogs don't know this stuff. Right.
>
> Linus was never right after Sadie died. None of us are, after we lose our
> life-mates. Why we expect dogs to get over it, I don't know. After Sadie
> walked over the Bridge to that sunlit field of frolic and eternal
> banqueting and counter-crawling, Linus survived bloat. I remember well the
> story JoAnn told about how she and Scott went careening down the mountain
> in their RV to get Linus to the vet in that critical 30 minutes. And how
> they decided, that Christmas, that their gift to one another was the $10k
> they had shelled out in basset care that year. They were not unhappy. We
> are all glad to do what we can for our hounds.
>
> I am reminded, tonight, by how many hounds and Houndservants on this list
> are struggling--with problems big and small. With undiagnosed lumps and
> bumps, blood in the urine, pseudomonas (sp?) in regular (and irregular)
> places. It is not easy, this thing called living.
>
> And yet, these Hounds Majestic are one of the things--if not the main
> thing,for many of us--that make life worth the living. Oh, sure, our hounds
> may ocassionally snap out of pain and confusion--but never out of malice.
> And even at the very end, our hounds give us that one thing that all of us
> cannot, will not, live without, and that is the experience of unconditional
> love. Of companionship that does not falter. And that is why we rack up
> credit cards or pay the mortgage late or do whatever is necessary so they
> get the care they need--regular or irregular, a trip to diagnose a gunky
> ear or a terrifying race down the mountain to save an aging hound.
>
> For me, bassets have been the way back to life after devastating loss. My
> life partner, De-Anna, went to the human version of the Bridge last
> January--coming up on 2 years ago. (Extremely hard to believe it has been
> almost 2 years.)
>
> Three months after her death, to the day, Golden Gate Basset Rescue
> entrusted me with my first basset, Percy. He died just shy of 2 months
> later, from bloat--while I was working. I did not find him until the next
> day. It was one of the worst days of my life, thinking somehow that wiley
> hound has escaped. GGBR members immediately called up and were organizing a
> house-to-house search. It proved heart-breakingly unnecessary. But is says
> everything about GGBR--and the people on this list--that a small battalion
> of people would drop EVERYTHING to help me locate my hound.
>
> That day, about 18 hours after he went missing, when I found Percy halfway
> under an outbuilding, stiff, it was almost more than I could bear.  Because
> in those two months I learned full well the healing power of drool, the
> magnificent heart of these pygmy beasties--and those who care for them.
> Grace entered my life with Percy, behind a goofy face and a extra-long
> hound body that loved slamming into me at full speed just to say, "yup,
> yup, I love ya, yup I DO!" Silky ears down the to ground, big old cold
> snuffle nose, and (I swear) a smile never ending. He was so damned glad to
> be alive, he made me happy to get up in the morning. No small achievement
> for 55 pounds of hound.
>
> Golden Gate Basset Rescue did not shame me or blame me for his death,
> although I very much blamed myself; in fact, I was told over and over again
> that "Percy will send his replacement." And so he did. August of last year,
> the Admiral came aboard, christened the HMS Certifiable with his sacred
> drool, and here we are today.
>
> And a most excellent bonus happened: I was taken in by other basset
> lovers. JoAnn and Scott invited me to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner
> with their sprawling family. Somehow, becoming guardian to a basset made me
> part of a huge, sprawling, drooling new pack--many whom I have never met.
> And it gave me a focus. Doing everything I can possibly do for Golden Gate
> Basset Rescue--from adopting to transporting to fostering to events to
> fundraising--has given my life meaning and purpose and focus during a time
> when I was cast adrift in every meaningful way.
>
> So this is all to say that, as I weep with JoAnn and Scott over the death
> of Linus, I also rejoice because these bassets, these crazy, funny,
> demanding, loving, giving, magnificent, wiley, can't-take-'em-serious,
> can't-live-without-em bassets, have given me the ability to know that death
> truly has no dominion.
>
> Adm. says, "One more angel walks the Rainbow Bridge tonight. We shall look
> for Linus' bright, shining spirit when our Tour of Duty is Over."
>
> Adm. watches from the bow of the ship; "Ahrooo! Ahrooo! Ahrooo!" sings out
> over the waves in honor of Linus and his beloved Sadie.
>
> Thank you for listening tonight. Drool to all,
>
> Lea Pierce
> Houndslave to Adm. JED
> Activist, Golden Gate Basset Rescue
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dailydrool mailing list
> Dailydrool at lists.dailydrool.org
> http://lists.dailydrool.org/listinfo.cgi/dailydrool-dailydrool.org
>
>


-- 
Mary Ann Thomas
Jemma & Clyde, da Hound Clowns

*"DON'T STOP BELIEVING"*

* SUPPORT BASSET RESCUE*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20131024/8275fdd0/attachment-0002.htm>