[Dailydrool] Basset-less and unsure what to do about it

[Elizabeth]

I stumbled across the Drool in July 2003 when I was searching Google for ideas for stimulating our Jane Basset’s appetite. Her usual interest in food had been decreasing all year. I’d been making her three hot meals a day since January, but then she stopped wanting even those. She was clearly a senior, but we didn’t know exactly how old she was because she’d come from a shelter. She’d defied death three times already, which meant she might do it again. I wanted to give her every opportunity to do so. 

I signed up for the Drool digest, asked for help, and was surprised by how many people, complete strangers, wrote such helpful and encouraging posts for me. I gave many of the suggestions a try, but it turned out that Jane really wasn’t meant to continue on. A couple weeks later, it was clear she was dying, and not even Purdue’s vet school would have been able to change that this time. Ken and I took her to an ER, held her as the vet helped her leave us, and then ugly cried together in the car for a very long time. 

When I was finally able to let the kind strangers on the Drool know of Jane’s death, we received many, many loving, compassionate messages of condolence in Drool posts, e-mails, and even snail mail. I saved them all. They’re still in an envelope under Jane’s urn on my dresser. 

I stayed on the Drool after Jane’s death because within a couple of weeks I had the joy to share of our new across-the-corner neighbor asking me to let her basset out and feed her on the evenings she was in night school after work. Within just a few weeks, I was keeping her basset at my house all day while I worked on copy editing various manuscripts for clients. That was Jennifer and Macy. True-blue friends in need. 

Macy’s daily presence helped ease my grief for Jane. She wasn’t anything like Jane, but she was a basset, and having her in the house during the day meant I missed only Jane and not also the daily routine that comes with having a dog. Macy kept me from having lost everything.

At the end of 2003, Jennifer adopted basset Owen, and in March 2004, Ken and I found our Elsinore Basset to be Jane’s worthy successor. Then in October 2006 young Charlie Basset joined us as a foster. I talked Ken into agreeing to adopt Charlie for my birthday in 2007. The best birthday present I’ve ever had, and one he didn’t have to shop for or wrap. By this point, I was no longer writing to strangers on the Drool about all the bassets in my life. I was writing to friends. 

And now, for the first time in 27 years, I have no bassets in my life. Macy, Owen, Elsinore, and Charlie are all gone. Yes, my mother’s little Chihuahua mix is still living with us, but I think we can all agree that’s just not the same at all. 

I’m discovering life isn’t as happy or full of surprises without a basset. There aren’t nearly as many reasons to laugh during the day. Most days tears are very close to the surface, and it still takes very little for me to get weepy over Charlie’s absence. There’s no sweet, furry hound to pull up onto my lap to cuddle like the sweetest toddler I’ll ever have. The only plus to being basset-less is that there’s considerably less fur on the floors now. 

At some point I’ll start looking for a new hound to help me laugh again. Part of me wants another basset, but part of me is leaning toward a beagle. I’m getting older, my back sometimes causes problems, and beagles are smaller and easier to carry to the car in an emergency, even when they’re dead weight. If I were to get a 4-year-old basset today, I’d be 67 when it’s 13. Will I be able to pick up and carry a 45-pound basset when I’m 67? Perhaps I could. After all, I’ve started the new year with a rowing machine and free weights—and I’m even using them most days. 

My question for The Drool is: would a beagle—or a basset half-and-half mix—not be allowed to go to the basset rescue picnics and waddles I’ve attended over the years? I know some rescues ask that non-bassets stay home while others are okay with basset mixes and other hounds. I saw a bloodhound once at the Michigan picnic a few years ago. Does anyone know if beagles have their own Drool and Waddle equivalent? Would the posts I want to make on the Drool be rejected if they were about a beagle instead of a basset? 

I thought it’d be better to ask these questions now while I’m hound-less than to find out after the fact that the type of hound I’ve chosen has had an impact on that part of my social life. I like being part of the Drool world. 

I wonder how difficult it would be to find another adult male basset who’s under 45 pounds, my weight-carry limit? 

Elizabeth