Stories you tell yourself about your pets

[LDAHL]

https://poets.org/poem/epitaph-dog

This puts me in mind of Lord Byron’s epitaph for his dog Boatswain.

[early morning]

bae, that's a lovely tribute to your four legged family members. I love hounds, my father raised black and tans for a while. DB has had hounds many years, the last died about 15 years ago (he now has a setter, by chance.) Several years ago they were emptying the house in preparation for a new build, and we were wiping down things that had hung up near the ceiling, untouched, for like 40 years. And this is going to gross out non-hound people.. but there was dried slobber on some stuff, likely from their first basset. He was a slinger of slobber of the highest order, and he was such a love. (A very very stubborn one, but still.) And we all just sat down and cried and shared stories of him, and his basset and bloodhound "followers". They were all such characters. Hounds are very special people.

[iris lilies]

Bassets are wonderful. I am in love with every one I see.

[iris lilies]

In my old city neighborhood, years ago, there was an older single man who had a very large Basset Hound called “Biggie.” He was the neighborhood’s favorite dog because he was often out in the neighborhood, walking. Or should I say, standing.
Biggie took some steps and then stopped. Took more steps, then stopped. Walking him was a hours long affair.

[early morning]

OH, they're great dogs, at least the ones I knew. When we dog-sat for DB's first basset, it was imperative that we have a vacuum cleaner and hairdryer on hand, as boy-o loved nothing more than a good vacuuming off, followed by a bath with "Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific" shampoo (does anyone else remember that stuff??), then a blow-dry. AFTER a good shake, of course, so as to wet down EVERYTHING close by. And he still smelled like a hound, lol. He would not wear a harness, and his neck was so much bigger than his head that he could ditch a collar in a shake. Bassets have such a low center of gravity that it's really hard to make them move if they don't want to, and to stop them, if they do. And they are BIG dogs, they just have really short legs, so it's easy for forget how big they are. Until they want to be carried.

[bae]

And they are BIG dogs, they just have really short legs, so it's easy for forget how big they are. Until they want to be carried.

Basil here was 60 pounds. Blake was 80 pounds. Here they are with my daughter, who they taught to walk. She'd crawl across the floor and grab their fur, at which point the dog would sigh, slowly stand, and then slowly walk along, with the child clinging to the side of the dog and toddling along.

This pair of bassets was very protective of the new addition to the family, and never left her side.

[frugal-one]

That’s a great picture! Had a basset for a few days. I knew why they wanted to get rid of it. It continually howled and bayed. Definitely was not the pick of the litter. Ha!

[happystuff]

What a great pic, bae! Thanks for sharing.

[catherine]

Adorable!!

[rosarugosa]

I've always thought Basset hounds were the cutest; I never realized they were so big! When I was a kid, there was a man in the neighborhood who had a pair, Lancelot and Guinevere. It seemed like they lived for a very long time, but I later learned that there were subsequent iterations of Lancelot and Guinevere.