Blessed Bassets 

Had to do an individual blog on Zoee because she loves the water more than any Basset Hound I have ever known.  She is the matriarch and alpha leader of our Basset pack.  Zoee is such a character that she makes us laugh every single day.  Here is her pool story.

This is just what Zoee loves.  Her eyes never open.....she just relaxes into her own zone in the pool.  Please notice how clean the water is.
This is the beginning of her day in the pool.  Or should I say pools...because she uses all of the pools we have.

This is what Zoee loves to do AFTER she has soaked in her pool and gotten completely wet all over.  We also have a sand pile area where the Bassets love to dig and of course,  Zoee must roll there too.  Even more pleasure !

Here is dirty Zoee.  Notice the look of pure JOY on her face.  Have you ever read the children's book, "Harry the Dirty Dog"?  I used to read it to my kids.....well this is definately "Zoee the Dirty Basset" and she so enjoys it !!

This is Zoee in pure bliss in her pool.  Of course, this is AFTER she has rolled in the dirt, probably several times in and out of the pool.  Notice the dirty water and look back up at the first photo of her in the pool.
Yes, our water bill goes way UP in the summer !!
But Zoee has fun !!!

Splash day at Blessed Bassets actually happened way back toward  the end of May because here in Texas it gets HOT very early in the summer.  Our dog area has wonderful shade on one side in the morning and the other side in the afternoon and all of the pens have resurrected shadecloth (see the Snow blog for details on that) but it still is hot.  We spend our days in the summer filling pools and buckets with cool, clean water and moving the dogs around to the shadiest areas.   They love the early mornings and the late evenings to run and play when it is cooler and the sun goes down.  But the afternoons are the real "dawg days" of summer....and they all lay around looking like dead dogs !!    For the last two weeks, we have had 99-100 degree heat on most days.  That is extra hot early even for Texas.    

Angel is almost as big a "pool hog" as Zoee.  She has always been crazy about the water and sits up just like this with her eyes closed in contentment.  Angel's puppies all just went home to their families and she is enjoying her non mommy time in the pool !!!

Fred doesn't just sit in the water....He swims around with his head under the water.  He is the water dog supreme.  I tried to catch him in action but I need to take a video !!

Wally (left) with his grandma Zoee sharing a pool moment together.
(More on Zoee in her pool hog blog above.)   Wally loves the water so much that he MUST jump in and out of every pool in every pen.  He also puts his head under. Wally's dad, Gabriel and granddad, Hank both do not like the water at all....but his mama Tess and grandma Zoee love it.  I guess he got their genes for pool love !!

Spring time is puppy time and it has been a very busy spring around here. Tess and Rudy's puppies were born in March and just went home to their wonderful families this past weekend.  Angel and Wally's puppies were born about 2 weeks ago and are growing very fast.  AND Phoebe and Rudy have puppies due in just over a week.  All of this keeps us really hopping around here, especially since our puppies are born and raised in the house with our family (and it is a busy family as well).   We have two more mamas who will (Lord willing) have puppies later this summer going home to families in the fall.  Always lots of dog activity around here not to mention all of the antics of the grown up Bassets. We have been working on all of our spring upkeep...painting our shelters, reinstalling the shade cloth (read the snow adventure blogs for reasons why), will be doing some rebuilding, etc..  We want the best for all of our sweet babies and so it is important to us to keep everything spiffy.   We are hoping to continue working with several of our adult Bassets in therapy dog training as well.  Never a dull moment here !!

 This blog is just the first one in the “Snow Adventure Series”.  Last Thurs., 2/11 at 3 am it began to snow here in Forney, Tx. .  By 7 am. we had probably about 4 inches of snow which to us is a huge snowfall.  This is when our adventure begins….

     Because we live in Texas where it  is hot most of the time we have shade cloth over all of our dog pens.  We put it up about 3 years ago and it has withstood some terrible thunderstorms and very high winds this past year.  It is put up on pvc poles and with bungy cords and rope…quite secure.  On Thurs. morning with the snow covering  them  our shade cloths (over the dog pens) looked like possible avalanches. (I really was concerned that they would cave in on the dogs)   In several pens they were so bowed down that I could hardly get in to feed the dogs. Sweet hubby says....just take the rake and go under them and shake off the snow.....off he goes to work and both of the girls gone to work also.  I like to think of myself as a pretty Texas tough woman so I know I can handle it.  Well,  easier said than done....spoken by one with no snow experience.....that snow was so heavy and when I could push up the shade cloth all of the snow just landed in the middle in a bigger and heavier boulder that was immovable.  The temperature was about 33 degrees so the snow was pretty wet and packed itself into big boulders quickly as I tried to work.  All the while I am working (with curious Bassets underfoot) it is snowing very heavily.  We did not expect any real accumulation of snow as for us even 2 inches is very unusual.   Soon it becomes clear to me that even IF I can get snow off of the shade cloth in a matter of an hour they will be covered again with no letup in the snow fall in sight.

I realize now that  I have to sweep off the snow and  then take down all of the shade clothes.  Remember that these things are put up to last and now the weight of the snow makes the tension on the bungies very tight.   With my squeegy type rubber broom and a knife to cut the bungies I began the task.   After an hour and a half …..Victory !!   All shade clothes down and out of Basset reach.   I came inside.....my coat was soaked through  (didn’t even know that was possible) and I was very  wet and cold but avalanches avoided.  (many of the pvc poles had already broken from the weight but the pens looked like skeletons with the shade cloth gone….see the before and after photos). 
     The pile of snow in the pens was a huge fascination to Wally and Sunshine who jumped on them, dug into them, tried to eat them and finally Wally topped off the biggest pile making it into yellow snow.  Wally spent the whole time standing on top of the biggest mound of snow in his pen like king of the hill.  Every time I tried to get a picture though he jumped off.  Wally and his daughter Sunshine are just two of a kind.  They  are such silly dogs.  all of the others were  snug inside their cozy houses....filled up the day before with lots of fresh sweet straw and all snuggling with another warm Basset body.  Tess (pregnant) and her mama Zoee were inside the house with Wilma and Betsy (the grumpy old girl).  I could never have suspected just how much more it would snow.  By supper time we had about 8 inches and by Friday morning we had 12 ½ inches…..an all time record snow fall in one day in Texas.  We would have had a shade cloth avalanche for sure !!

 

We don't get a lot of cold weather in Texas but just two weeks ago we had a blue Norther' as we call it here.  The low went down to 12 degrees with a wind chill of zero or less.  Pretty cold outside !!  All of our Bassets have a 3 sided shelter with shingled roof and raised deck.  They all have a sturdy heavy doghouse under the shelter on the deck filled with hay and a warm roommate (two dogs in each pen) to sleep with.  But as they are all my babies, I could not imagine them staying out in their houses when it was that cold. My sweet hubby is not one to argue with my "doggy" heart so we came up with a plan.  I forgot to add that we also had two girls in heat which complicated the matter quite a bit.  Our dog room (where puppies are born and raised) is divided by a partition with a whelping box and open area on each side so that room became sleeping quarters for Wally and 3 girls on one side with Gabriel and 3 girls on the other side. (Making a total of 8 dogs in the dog room).  The two "hot" girls (in heat) Sunshine and Tess stayed a distance away in the utility room with a baby gate up.  Annabelle (being cranky) stayed in the downstairs half bathroom.  Hank, Fred and Rudy stayed in 3 individual crates (necessary due to rivalry over the "hot" girls).  Wilma slept in our bedroom and that makes the 15 Bassets.  I almost forgot about our old country dog Betsy (age 14) who doesn't like any of the Bassets and slept on her blanket in her corner of the dining room.  The first night was not a very quiet night....a few "howl arounds".  But night two and three (yes this went on for 3 nights !) were pretty normal.  We also kept the dogs inside during the day until the temperature was at least 20 degrees.  Everyone was very happy when it warmed up !!  The Bassets love to run outside as a pack and really even enjoy the crisp weather !!  But I slept better knowing they were inside !! I attempted to take a video of all of this to post here but it did not come out very well so I will leave all of this to your imagination !!!  To us it was just another Blessed Basset adventure !!

Christmas is a very special time around the Blessed Basset's home because we believe in celebrating the birth of Jesus.  All of our lives have been changed because we know Him so we encourage you this Christmas season to get to know Him too.  His love is amazing !
Here are just a few of our Blessed Bassets dressed up for Christmas !!

All of our puppies went home to their new families around Thanksgiving. The puppies were never posted to our litter page because all were sold to people already on our notification.  I am so thankful for the wonderful families who chose Blessed Bassets.  Wanted to share a couple of precious photos of Bassets and kids....a wonderful combination.

These are Annabelle and Wally's pups and Phoebe and Rudy's pups playing outside for the first time at 6 weeks old.  They absolutely love it !!  All are sold and will be going to their new homes in about 2 weeks.

Phoebe and Annabelle both delivered their puppies last Saturday, Sept. 26th beginning at 1:00am.  By the time they were finished I had been up for 36 hours....so it has taken ME some time to recover and find time to blog.  Phoebe and Rudy are parents of 8 beautiful babies. Annabelle and Wally are parents of 4 beautiful babies.  Phoebe had one very tiny girl that we are calling "Twiggy".  She is catching up with lots of nursing and our bottle feeding.   Everyone is doing very, very well and puppies are gaining 1-3 oz. daily !!  Good News !!
(photos below are taken just after birth, everyone has grown !)

Annabelle and her big babies

Phoebe with her babies of various sizes and colors.

Tiny "Twiggy" in my husband's big hands.  She is already a lot bigger now and a very determined, strong girl !!