I know I said I would tell you all about the 80 pound Basset, but that will have to wait a little longer. First I have to rant.

We got a call from the rescue today asking if we would take in a Basset mix whose family has a toddler. The toddler pokes and kicks the dog, but the owners don't stop him. They're getting rid of the dog.

It drives me CRAZY when people get rid of their dogs because they have a baby. It's not fair to the dog! Maybe they should teach their bratty kids to respect the dog! I'm fairly certain that the dog would leave the kid alone if the kid would return the favor.

If you have a kid, please. Teach the kid how to be nice to animals. And NEVER leave a little kid and a dog alone.

Happy

There he is. The freakish terrier hound.

His name was Happy, a dog about a year old who was whisked out of a kill shelter in Tennessee days before he was going to be put down. But none of that phased him. He was a bundle of energy. That dog rarely settled down. And he would jump over our (supposedly...) Basset Proof fence without even thinking about it. Now me, I don't really like extremely hyper dogs. They get on my nerves. But I somehow got along with this dog. For the most part at least. It did upset me when he would get out of the yard and I would have to chase him down the road in the chilly air...

He also loved chasing the laser pointer light, which was a very un-Basset trait. This dog was play play play all day every day.

Yeah, he may not have been full Basset, but he was still really cute. Who could resist this face?

Not too long after he came to us, Happy left us for a new home where he could run wild and terrorize new people. Miss you Happy!

Shortly before Happy left, we acquired a new dog. His name was Delbert. And he was ALL Basset. All 80 pounds of him.

First post: How it all began.

I figured I would use this first post as an opportunity to introduce myself and give you the history of why we began to foster Bassets.

We got our first Basset in 2000. My aunt and uncle had always owned Bassets, so I was familiar with them. But it was so much cooler having one of my own. She was an adroable puppy that we named Missy. But when you have one Basset, you have to have another. There is no way around it. They are just that cool. So we convinced ourselves that Missy needed a friend. So in 2001, we got another puppy who, after much discussion and many coin tosses, was named Hubert. And the two got along great together. We were happy, they were happy. It was great! But you remember how I said a few sentences ago that when you have one, or in our case two, Bassets you have to have more? Well, we weren't looking for a new dog, but my mom was searching Basset Rescue sites and came upon a picture of a handsome Basset named Rufus. So, we went through the whole adoption process. The application, the phone calls, the home visits, and eventually the trip to New Hampshire where we ending up driving by the persons house a few times before they started flickering the porch lights at us...but that's OK! We made it there eventually! And we got Rufus, who was just as cute in person as he was in his picture. And so the story began. The downward spiral into Basset land. A place that you can't return from. It's a good thing I like it here...

My family and I have been a foster home for Basset Hounds for the past 3-4 years. In that time, we have had more than 20 dogs come through our door. All of them have had different personalities and issues, and they all had different stories. The only thing that connected them was the fact that no one wanted them.

Why did my family decide to get involved in Basset Rescue? Well, to be honest, it was mostly my mom who wanted to do it. I was afraid that I would fall in love with every single one of them. I think I finally caved because I thought it would be cool to have an extra Basset around the house for a while. I mean, Bassets are cute. Who could resist? All of that made it pretty funny and ironic that the first dog we got wasn't a full Basset. Yup. You heard me right. He wasn't a Basset. He was some sort of...freakish terrier mix that might have had a tiny bit of Basset in him if you looked close. REALLY close.

But, you see, it's late. I have left you some pictures of my dogs at the top. The first one is Rufus, the second one is Hubert, and the one at the bottom is Missy. And so, I bid you all goodnight until another time. And then I will tell you about the fence jumping sort of Basset.