Famous Basset Hound Friday #13

Well it's that time of the week again. After a long 7 days of basset hound work (i.e. sleeping, barking at Joey, and blogging), it's time for that half hour of careful contemplation, thorough web surfing, and delicate typing that culminate into the best of all weekly events:

Famous Basset Hound Friday!

This basset hound Friday is in honor of the only online webcomic basset hound that I know of. His name was Kirbicus "Kirby" the King of Bassets. He was the star of a long-running webcomic called PvP, which is written by a guy named Scott Kurtz. The hound in the comic was based on the author's real-life basset hound named Kirby. Not a terribly creative author, but then again, we ARE talking about a hound here. Probably no reason not to use his real name, as it doesn't get much more genuine than the real thing.

I will be honest here. I have not followed PvP for very long - it was around long before I was alive - but I read the Wikipedia article and it basically filled me in. Mr. Kurtz also appears to be very dedicated to his craft and has lots of fans so I know he did the basset hound honor, even if he did make Kirby less intelligent than most hounds. The abbreviated version of things is that Kirby was made into an important character in a webcomic and he had many adventures.

The real-life Kirby passed away in 2009. Mr. Kurtz wrote a very touching eulogy for him that you can read. He also had a friend who did a guest comic that Kirby's ghost appeared in, where he shows how faithful a hound he was. Make sure and read the comic notes when you check out that comic. Also read both the comic notes and the eulogy and see if you can spot Mr. Kurtz going back on his word about owning more hounds - we have a way of getting into your hearts.

So all in all, Kirby was as awesome as every basset hound is. He was also famous to boot and that makes him our 13th Famous Basset Hound!

It is snowing again

We are getting more snow today. I'm not sure if I like the snow or not. Layla tells me that she loves the snow, and goes running around in it when it first starts each winter. She even wrote a survival guide for lots of snow. I found it to be helpful when we got snow the last time (I didn't live here during Snowpacolypse, so all I did before now was stay in the garage), but that snow only lasted a day. Today's snow isn't sticking to the ground very much but who knows how much we might get? I put up a picture that mama took during the last snow of a big tree near where we live - isn't it beautiful?

I saw Joey a couple of times today. When it snows a lot it's ok with me if he comes in and stays warm as long as he doesn't try to take any of my toys or sit in mom or dad's lap, but on non-snowy days I don't understand why they let him in here! I bark at him when I see him at the door, telling him to go away, but they keep on letting him in and feeding him! I'm worried that if they let him in he will eat too much food and then we will get less! I rather enjoy my morning and evening meals and wouldn't take kindly to getting less of them. Plus Joey is sneaky and tries to come in another door when he sees me standing guard - he knows I would kick his butt if he tried to get by me. But then dad (he's kind of a pushover I think) will let him in the back door and put our gate up so we can't stop him.

So I have been working on my knocking-the-gate-over abilities. I'm getting pretty good. Rosco and Layla aren't nearly as good as I am. Plus I can walk on the gate once it falls down no problem; the two of them never thought to try it until they saw me do it. And I howl a lot better than them too! That cat knows to run when he hears me!

Watch out Joey!

Who is Joey?

This is an important question. Joey is not just a random name that gets me charging across the yard in all my 60-pound basset glory. Joey is a real phenomenon, and he takes up a lot of my thinking time.

Joey is a cat.

See? See?? Doesn't he look really sad, like he needs a hound dog girl to befriend him? We let him in the house all the time so he doesn't have to sleep in the cold or the snow or be bitten by mosquitoes, but he just doesn't like me. I really want to play with him, but all he does when I get close is growl and try to swat me. So I bark at him, thinking it is his way of playing (sounds kind of rude to me), but he just runs away.

I feel badly for Joey but if he continues to be such a jerk then I'm not going to play with him anymore!

Trickery and deception will get you nowhere

Lately I have noticed a few things that bother me at my house. It is getting warmer and that means I want to spend more time outside. I like to lay on my deck and get some sun so I can work on my basset tan. The neighborhood is more alive now that the snow has melted and the birds are back, flying around and singing. I can also run through the yard quicker now and there is a hint of squirrel in the air. Even Joey jumps into our yard sometimes, and Sophia has been in her yard a lot lately.

Plenty of reasons for a hound to want to stay outside a bit longer than usual.

What are you yelling about? I can hear you.

But our parents don't want us to hang out in the yard. They would rather we go out and do our business, then come right back in. Dad always mumbles something about not chasing me in his underwear. Now I am a good hound lady, and I do my best to listen to the suggestions my owners make to me. But there are times I have to exert my independence. This usually goes pretty well if I get off the deck, as dad doesn't like to come down and get me. Sometimes I am rewarded by being left alone and allowed to come back inside when I am good and ready. Other times it results in mom or dad trying to trick us.

The trickery and deception worked on me for a little while - I wanted to believe. Dad would say something like 'let's go inside puppies', and we would all faithfully come bounding up the steps. But now that I take my time he tries to entice me upstairs with a treat. Now there are times where a treat sounds better than walking around in the yard, and he usually gives us treats when we come inside anyway. Other times he will say 'mama's home', and it is difficult not to give in to that temptation. Mama coming home is a joyous occasion. Lately he has asked if we want to go for a car ride. Car rides are the best!

I'm so happy!

But usually this is just a lie - he only says that to get us to come upstairs, and then he flops down on the couch to watch TV. Now that I know this happens I listen less and less. Plus he is dealing with a pro - I can trick Rosco into giving up The Good Bone pretty easily. The one trick I need to work on is when he says 'Nibs!' or 'Joey!', as if the cats were at the door. I really want to play with those cats but they are afraid of me. So I try and take advantage of cornering them so I can show them how nice I am, and more than once dad has tricked me into coming inside before I was good and ready, only to discover that there are no cats.

But me listening less and less is starting to make them come out and get me. The other day he came down with a broom, as if he were going to sweep me up the stairs.

So you see the sort of foolishness I have to put up with. This sort of devious behavior can really wear a girl down.

Nibbler has a big butt

The weather around here has been a lot nicer lately. For a long time it was pretty cold, and there was loads of snow and ice in the yard. We finally moved into a place where we can see out the windows and what do we get? Two months of ice and snow. Not much to look at, and hardly any birds or squirrels in sight.

That all changed recently. Once the weather started to warm up they opened the windows and the drapes so we could look out the glass doors. I'm loving those things. All of us can line up and see out it, no more crowding or head crawling or anything else when a cool little bird pops in. The last thing you want to see when a cool little bird pops in is Nibbler's butt in your face. Although if he is even in the room at all it's tough not to notice it.

These windows are definitely suboptimal, dude

We don't have our bird feeders up yet so they don't come right up to the window like they used to (see below for my favorite feeder setup), but I can still hear them chirping away out in the neighborhood. I'd like them to get close enough to see, or even reach out and grab. The place up in Michigan with all the dogs and cats has a great porch that is screened in, it's practically like living outside. I'll bet I could catch a bird if I lived outside like Joey, but of course he is such a big jerk that he makes living outside seem like a bad thing.

Either way, I'm glad warmer weather has come along.

Lucky squirrel, if this glass wasn't here I would own you

Lots of new things

There have been a lot of new things since I wrote last time. I see my brother and those cats have made a few entries. None of them were quite as important as my last blog though.

First of all, the newest thing is that we are in a new house now. It's much better than the old one! There are a couple of great things about this new place. First, it's HUGE. It's at least twice as big as the old one. The kitchen is big, which means I can eat my food and really spread out now if I want to. Second, there is carpeting, which means I can nap wherever I want and not have to lay on a hard floor. Third, the basement is sometimes open to me, which is completely different from the last house. I even get to play down there once in awhile. The backyard still has a fence, and there is a little girl who came into the yard and played with me while they unloaded all our stuff! Her name is Sophia and she brings me and Rosco treats. Sometimes she sneaks them through the fence if her dog Biggin is there. Biggin seems like an ok dog - not a basset but we can't all be perfect like me. We really haven't got to play with Biggin yet. Finally, there's an outdoor cat at this house. His name is Joey and I really want to meet him and sniff him, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself yet.

But I do miss my old house sometimes. This yard doesn't have a good squirrel tree, and there's no dirt to roll in. There are also more stairs - up stairs to get in and out of the house, up and down stairs to get into the basement - at the old house there were only 5 stairs to go up and down. I'm not fond of stairs, I always think I am going to fall down them. The basement stairs here have plastic on them and I have made a couple of unladylike slides! But it isn't my fault, we bassets aren't really made for stairs, especially the death-trap kind. I do miss my squirrels though. I also miss Joni, who came to visit us sometimes from You Go Pet Sitting. If you're ever in Springfield and need a pet sitter I really liked Joni, she was really nice. She also put my picture up on the internet as a good dog, so you know she has good taste in beautiful dogs.