We believe in giving puppies lots of love and personal attention.  My daughter, Rosalie is in the whelping box loving on puppies in this photo.  We had lots of puppies to love last fall and lots of busy work with them all so no time for blogging !!

I can't believe that I have not done a blog since Sept.  WOW it was a very busy puppy season last fall.  You can see all the puppy photos by clicking the link to the flickr site on my home page.  We were thrilled to have gorgeous Grundy pups and wonderful families who chose them to be their own. Watch for new testimonials to be posted this month and lots of updates on our sweet Bassets (new photos and info. to come). Working on this while I am on a puppy break before our 2012 pups start coming !!

Annabelle is expressing how we all feel about the extreme heat wave of summer 2011 !!  We had 72 days of over 100 degree heat from June-August, several days at 110 and over!          
The Bassets spent all day in cool pools, hosed down, in the shade and finally in August we discovered misting hoses...these were really a saving grace !!  Amazing how much they cool down the temperature even in the shade !!  

This is the most expensive piece of jewelry I have every owned.
The "BHG" gemstone in the necklace cost $841.00     
"what is a BHG gemstone?"
It is a Basset Hound Digested gemstone!
It is 3 inches in diameter and weighs about 2 oz. and yes,
our Basset Estella ATE it!
How is that possible? Just what we asked our vet. The esophagus can push down something bigger than the opening of the stomach but then it cannot pass into the intestines (opening is too small) so it stays inside the stomach and rolls around like the inside of a rock tumbler
the  rock is very smooth !!

My hubby and I returned from a mini vacation and the next day Estella was vomiting blood so off to the vet where the xray showed the huge rock. Our vet suspects that Estella was very nervous and anxious about our being gone (daughters took care of the dogs) and ate the rock due to anxiety. Here she is chilling after surgery.

Incision into her stomach. Dogs can eat all kinds of things. At Petplace.com it lists the top 10 items surgically removed from pets as: socks, underwear,
rocks,balls, chew toys, corncobs, bones, hairties & ribbons and sticks. Usual cost for surgery is $800-$1700 so I guess our rock/gem was a bargain. Don't ask Estella !!

Today is day 21 of temperatures over 100 degrees here in Forney, Tx..  It is HOT and since we cannot have all 17 dogs inside we must work hard to keep everyone outside cool with shade, shadecloth on our pens, hosing off and 7 wading pools !!  Otis is very, very happy in the pool as you can see !!  He is one very chilled slug of a Basset !!

But what determines if a Basset is a real pool dog??? Almost all of ours like the pool but some of them ADORE the pool. We began to notice some genetic trends....is pool love an heriditary trait??  This is Angel, Otis and Hazel's mom.  She stays in the pool all day!! (although right now is inside the house with her puppies).

This is Wally.  Notice how dirty his pool water is.  As noted in a previous blog, Wally is so obsessed with the pools that he MUST swim in every one of them daily and then roll in the dirt...thus the nice clean water you see. Wally also puts his nose and head UNDER the water and swims around !!  He is the dad of Otis & Hazel !!

These are Hazel and Otis, the children of Angel and Wally. The very first time we got the pools out they both jumped in !! They had never even SEEN pools before.  I think this proves that "pool love or pool obsession" is an inherited trait.  Both of these babies love the water and Otis like his Dad, Wally, stays in the pool all day long !!  Cool pool Bassets !!

Couldn't get a good photo of Grundy in the pool. He came into our Basset family last December and we didn't know about his "pool preference" or pool genetics but he jumped right in and loves the pools too. He likes to lay down and put his face in also. I look forward to hearing from Blessed Basset families about how his puppies like the pool...genetics? 

Our shade is on one side of the yard in the morning and on the other side in the late afternoon and evening so we shift our dogs around all day....and constantly refill the pools and drinking buckets with cold water.  It gets hot fast when it is 105 degrees !!  But they are all doing well just lazing around and chilling in the pools.

We do have some lovely shade in the early morning hours when it is only about 85 degrees.   Last week we saw a coyote come up pretty close to our dog pens but when the dogs barked it left.  The wildlife out here is suffering from the heat and looking for water.  We have a racoon pack of 4 on our front porch every night ! Hope you are all staying cool and keeping your doggies cool too.

Remember in this heat to please keep an eye on your dogs. Bring them inside if possible. If not, be sure that their water dishes have cool water that will stay cool (in shade and not in a metal container).  Be sure they cannot dump out or knock over their water container and be without water (our buckets are hooked to the fence). Put out pools if possible and be sure they have shade. Check on them regularly or have neighbors check if you are gone and unable to do so. You can also hose them down with cool water to help them stay cool. Keep them safe !!

As I said in the post below I am way behind on major events in the lives of the Blessed Bassets.  Sometimes thing happen that take a while to process and be able to share.  In Dec., our precious Rudy was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lympthatic Leukemia).  It is a very, very aggressive form of cancer that even chemo. would not cure.  We treated Rudy with medications and the vet did not expect him to live more than one week but Rudy lived well for 2 1/2 months and died just three weeks ago.  I am posting only one photo here but please see the memorial page for more on Rudy. We are heartbroken because even with so many Bassets we love them each individually and they are our Basset family and Rudy was one very special guy and he is greatly missed !!  
   Also in Dec. for the first time ever we had two precious puppies (9 months old) returned to us due to a family crisis.  Otis and Hazel are totally attached to each other and after a week back home with us it was evident that they were here to stay.  We also added Grundy to our Basset family at the end of December.  You can see all of these sweeties by clicking the Our Dogs tab.  So the last few months have brought a lot of change to our Basset family...some happy and some sad !!  We are so thankful for each of the precious Bassets we have and their very individual personalities and attachments to us!!  It is our goal to be great family and caretakers of them right down to their last day !! 

I am so far behind on all of my blogs and you will understand why as you read them and I catch you up on Blessed Basset events.  The 2010 snow event (see blog) we thought was monumental and could not be surpassed (15 dogs inside)....but this year we DID BEAT IT !! We had 5 nights and 4 days with 18 bassets in the house !! With lows of 10 degrees and daytime highs of 12 degrees and 6 inches of snow,  we felt the cold was just too extreme for our Bassets to be outside even with 3 sided shelters, dog houses with hay and another warm Basset body.  We had two pregnant girls (just bred) and two girls in heat which is pretty difficult when we also have 6 male dogs....it gets pretty exciting.   Before you envision 18 dogs running wild through our house let me assure you that they were all been confined in various places;  in our dog room (3 on each side making 6 in all), utility room (3 there), downstairs half bath (2 pregnant girls), 5 in crates and 2 sleeping on dog beds.  And believe it or not they were relatively quiet and quiet all night. We spent our days taking the dogs outside to potty and trying to give them some attention and breaks from confinement.  It's great that my husband and daughter were off of work due to the weather and at home to help. The warmest day, 15 degrees, my hubby let the dogs out in small groups to run around their play area for about 10 minutes at a time.  After 10 minutes they were all looking at him like, "can we go back in now?" It's a good thing that Bassets love to just lay around because that was about the extent of their activity.  We hope someday to have a heated barn for all of them to be in when the weather is bad but truly we have never seen this kind of weather in Texas lasting for such a long stretch!!  I am so thankful for a hubby who also loves our sweet Bassets and looked at this as one big adventure because the following week there was another snowstorm and extreme cold....my daughter and I were gone on a trip so singlehandedly my hubby brought in all 18 dogs again...what a MAN !!
 I am only putting a few photos here or else the whole blog would be covered !!
    

Rudy, Precious and Dinah in half of the dog room in the whelping box.

Wally with his children, Otis and Hazel in the other half of dog room in the whelping box.

Grundy, Angel and Phoebe in the utility room.

Annabelle and her daughter, Sunshine,  the pregnant gals in the tiny half bathroom.

In the middle of October the Blessed Bassets launched into a grand new experience !! I was contacted by a designer on assignment for Staton clothing who was looking for Basset Hounds to be photographed for their clothing catalog.  Seems that Tommy Hilfiger had used Basset Hounds posing with the Hilfiger family having a tail gate party for his fall collection making them desirable for other advertising.  She had found my website and wanted to hire one of my dogs. The designer explained to me how photos shoots work and we discussed my dogs looks and temperments.   She submitted photos of my dogs to her client and we were chosen !!    I chose Gabriel because I think he is gorgeous and he has been obedience trained.  And just because I like to live risky I also took along Sunshine because she is a beautiful girl. She is the youngest in my pack (2 yrs.old) and as the daughter of Mr. "Incorrigible" Wally, she is quite a handful even though she does know "sit" and "Stay".  I told the designer that Sunshine would be a loose cannon that I could not predict but she was game to try them both.
     We had a fabulous time and ended up doing two days of the photo shoot.  I am probably the most "un-fashionista" person you could know and I found the entire process to be just fascinating.  Everyone on the shoot was very kind and patient with us understanding that this was our first photo shoot ever. Gabriel and Sunshine did an exemplary job receiving complements from every person involved in the shoot.
The models ranged in age from 4 yrs. old -35 yrs. old and almost every one of them petted and loved on the dogs.
    I was told that Gabriel and Sunshine performed even above some of the trained professional dogs that they had worked with.  I was so very proud and pleased that it all went so well and it was a very enjoyable day both for the dogs and for me !!  We hope to be able to get more work like this as it is perfect for Basset Hounds.  They love being around people and don't mind chilling out and waiting between shoots. 
Who would have ever guessed that my sweet Bassets would be modeling stars !!??

Sunshine and Gabriel had lots of time to just chill out between photo shoots.  They got lots of love and attention from the models and everyone involved in the shoot.  They were definately in their element and had a
 great time !

Here I am preparing the dogs for the shoot.  Both dogs had been relaxing with each other all afternoon waiting but now they needed to relax on camera...could they do it on cue?   Of course !!  They were fantastic !

These photos were taken on a break in the shooting by the designer for the shoot. Hope to post the final professional shots soon.

Gabriel is pretty focused on the model...she must remind him of me !

Gabriel
has
the look !

People tell me all of the time that I have the most wonderful job in the world....raising Basset Hounds.  While I don't disagree I do want to add a little reality to the job.  This thought occured to me after cleaning 15 sets of Basset Hound ears (that would be 30 individual ears in all).  It is very important to me that my Blessed Bassets families take good care of their puppies and so I make sure to explain the need for weekly ear cleaning, nail clipping, teeth brushing, heartworm meds., vaccinations, etc..  I MUST practice what I preach and I do but many times others don't really think about what that means when you have 15 Bassets !!  It means about 2 hours to clean everyone's ears.  It really is a fun process though as I get alot of in my lap, face-to-face, drooly closeness with each one of my dogs individually.  We get to have our little personal time to talk while mama cleans the ears.  I buy ear cleaner by the gallon from my vet and bags of cotton balls to soak in alcohol for the cleaning.  I do the ear cleaning outside and right now the weather is beautiful but in the summer it is also a very sweaty job.  By the time I finish, I am absolutely covered from head to foot with ear gunk and lots of drool, but I am one loved mama.  I wanted to put a montage of 30 Basset ears with this post but I don't know how to do that so there are just two sets to observe, Wally (below) and Sunshine (above)....examples of big, long Basset ears.  Besides ear cleaning, raising Bassets is a 24/7 job just like parenting.  They must be loved on,  fed twice a day, given fresh water, in summer pools put out and changed as it gets hot,  exercised, loved on more, played with, given heartworm meds. monthly, bathed occasionally, brushed and more.  Of course, there is the poop duty...poop must be picked up at least twice a day.  Some Bassets think that their pack mates "deposits" are nifty treats (ugh) so I am always trying to beat them to the snack.  Poop buckets must be emptied and washed out (because we feed a premium food we only get about two big buckets of poop a week--thank goodness).  But you can imagine that this is NOT my favorite part of raising Bassets but like diaper changing in babies it is NECESSARY !!
Of course when we have pregnant mamas, or are in the breeding process, or have puppies there are another whole set of jobs involved. But of course, the joy is that I get to have 15 Bassets to love and to be entertained by daily.  I have the great fun of raising beautiful, sweet puppies and getting to meet the best families in the world who become Blessed Basset families.  Only certain folks love Bassets and they are a unique brand of people that I truly enjoy.  Even after puppies go home I get to hear wonderful stories and see wonderful photos of my puppies growing up being loved and spoiled. Sometimes families even come back to visit so I get to see my babies all grown up.  I would say all in all it is more than worth all of the work for all of the JOY !!!