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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Our Lucie does the Basset 500 when she comes in
from the rain or snow and has to be dried off with towels. After she gets the
toweling down, she is released like some sort of spring and does the 500 several
times around the house at top speed, crashing into the front door at the end of
a skid, tossing the dining room chairs while going through them. She
collapses into breathless heap at the end and then has a nap.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>However, nothing tops the Basset 500 that our first
Basset, name of HP (short for Hush Puppy - what can I say? the shoes were very
popular and used basset hounds in their advertising.) My husband had just
given HP a bath in the laundry tub in the basement. DH had just finished
drying HP with a dozen towels. Now, you have to know that the dog was very
large...at his top weight, he weighed 90 pounds and was not fat, just very, very
long.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So...having been released from being dried off, HP
took off at top speed to race around the unfinished basement. He did a
couple of laps, then picked up speed and went off to do another lap when he went
wide on a corner and hit my husband's 10 gallon vat of red wine in primary
fermentation. This was DH's very first batch of wine from our
home-grown grapes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You know what's coming, right? Yep, HP hit
that vat at warp speed, the vat went over, spilled everywhere. On the dog, all
over the floor. Of course, being a basement floor, it's not level, so the
wine went in places we didn't want it to go. Did I mention it was red
wine?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The results? Hours spent mopping up. HP
had to have another bath. We had to have showers. The basement smelled
like fermented grapes for weeks. DH only brewed another batch of wine
after that. Now we buy our wine from the store and give away the grapes in
exchange for jelly.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We still laugh about that incident which happened
36 years ago. We miss HP, but we still have the grapes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for listening. Healing drools to all
sick houndies and their slaves.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Karen & Lucie (Devil
Dog)</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>