Where we've been

I'll bet you, as a regular reader of Jowls of Fury, have been wondering where we have been for the last few days, right? Well! Wonder no more! We are at one of our grandma's house, and she doesn't have very fast internet. That's why this message will be short and sweet. We just wanted to let everyone know that we are up here for Christmas and we will be back to faster internet by the end of the year. Until then everyone have a good holiday, take lots of naps, and watch out for Christmas Pig Monsters.

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 41

This week's famous hound is another basset blogger. We only recently started reading his stuff but he has regular posts and he is a pretty good hound author. And for all our other basset blogging buddies, don't fret! You will all get to be famous hounds eventually. We have an entire list of hounds (blogging or otherwise) to go through and we don't want to bunch all the bloggers together.

So our newest famous hound is a handsome fellow by the name of Bentley.

The one on the left

Bentley has a mama and several aunties, and also a buddy named Turbo. They have lots of adventures and they are also accomplished hound chefs! If only mama would let us be hound chefs... we could make all kinds of cupcakes to eat. Bentley writes a blog called 'Bentley the Basset's Words of Wisdom'. Of course all hound's words are wise. Bentley and Turbo recently fought off some evildoers and he gets to go to work all the time. He also guards some really cool cars. Bentley is a 2-year old hound just like me!

And he's our latest famous hound!

The best place to sleep

As a hound, you have several options on where you choose to sleep. Sometimes you have to make the best of a non-ideal situation. While car rides are a lot of fun, the long ones that tend to require nap time usually involve lots of luggage. This does not make for a comfortable hound opportunity, but you can sometimes take advantage of properly placed luggage.

Laptop bags have nothing to do with laps as far as I can tell

The bed is a good place to nap, but usually you have to compete with a few other hounds for a good spot. Sometimes this is nice, especially on cold nights when you need to be warm, but other times it is just a bit too crowded. Now if you are a mighty hound like me you can just shove them out of the way, but if you are a feather duster like Rosco you are out of luck.

Three is a crowd

But the truly best place to sleep is next to mama. Daddy is OK but he is not as cuddly as mama, and he gets all twitchy when he starts to fall asleep. Sometimes I wonder if he is dreaming about bunnies or squirrels like I sometimes do. But it is annoying to be in a restful hound sleep and get jerked awake by him. Mama just sleeps soundly, like us hounds.

Yes, this is the best place to sleep

Christmas costumes and monster!

Rosco and Layla have been telling me about a Christmas tradition that we all have to go through each year. We have to wear costumes. Rosco even had to wear a beard and a hat once. I don't know how he got through it but he did. Well, yesterday was the day. I wasn't looking forward to it but at least we got a treat out of the deal.

It was utter chaos

As hectic as things were I have to say that I think I looked pretty good in my pretty Mrs. Santa Paws outfit. But I always do cut a stunning figure.

Mrs. Paws has nothing on me

Rosco and Laya were less well behaved with their costumes. They kept trying to take their hats off. Mama and daddy didn't even try the beard this year and I don't blame them - Rosco is a little brat and a beard on a lady hound is just ridiculous. Layla always tries to bite the hat band anyway.

Rosco never keeps his hat on

The beard would've gotten in the way of her antler hat

So the costume party ended (finally!) and we thought the perils of Christmastime were over. But we were wrong. Mama brought this big baggy thing out from the laundry room. It smelled like the outside and we were of course duty-bound as hounds to investigate it. She hollered at us and told us to quit walking on the pig. Well it didn't look like any pig to me! She taped it here and taped it there. Then she plugged it in (an electric pig at that!) and it started to inflate.

You might call this a pig but it is clearly a monster

Once he started to inflate mama was very happy. I am a bit suspicious about her now, I think she may have been brainwashed. Christmas Pig Monster was sitting there looking very smug in my living room and his fan was making enough noise that I couldn't have napped even if there weren't a monster sitting next to my TV. I began to formulate a plan but then mama's brainwashing went away and she told daddy to take the pig (AKA Christmas Pig Monster) outside. OK good, I thought, now I have a bit more time and perhaps I can kill him in the yard the next time I got out. Well, daddy took care of it for me. Christmas Pig Monster went in the front yard. He only comes alive when it is night time, and really that isn't such a bad deal because he will keep other dogs and cats out of our yard. Just so he doesn't come back in my living room again we have an uneasy truce.

He doesn't look too good right now

I vanquished him and saved Christmastime! No more photos please.

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 40

Wow it is hard to believe that we are getting close to an entire year of famous hounds. It seems like only yesterday we started it off with the original blog about them. How time flies! Time flies when you are having fun! Jowls fly on car rides!

This week's famous hound is a bit of a celebrity. We have actually been in the same place as him too! He visited the GABR waddle the first year we went! His name is Shooter, and he is the personal hound trainer of the Chicago Blackhawk's hockey player Patrick Sharp. Because the waddle is so close to Chicago he came to visit with his mama. I think his mama is a pretty lady, but my heart still belongs to Kirsten Dunst. I hope she doesn't read this and get jealous!

Scooter at the 2010 Waddle

Anyway. Shooter is very important in hockey. He has trained Patrick Sharp on how to stay on his feet and always be a good hockey player. Watch the video below for some training in action.

I think Shooter has done a pretty good job. You have to start training humans early on or they will start to think they run the place. In fact, he did such a good job training Patrick Sharp that they won the Stanley Cup, which evidently is the world's biggest treat container!

Who designed this thing anyway?

So there you have it, a hound who trained a person to run around on the ice with a stick and not get hurt! This is clearly a famous hound!

Handsome fellow. The human isn't too bad either, I guess

Rescue Me #1

So as I have blogged before, I am a rescue hound. Some foolish person decided once that they didn't want me anymore and gave me up for adoption. I went to live with some nicer people, but let's be honest - rescue facilities are way too crowded for hound lifestyle. I was so happy when mama and daddy rescued me, and have been living the good life ever since.

But this time of year I start to think about all those other hounds who are in rescue facilities or who are even luckier and get to live in foster homes. A foster home is better but it isn't the same as a forever home. These poor hounds have no family to love on them or feed them, and no one to play chase with. It was really bothering me all day, despite hours of napping to clear my hound mind.

So I am left with only one option. Dictation! I dictated to daddy that we should start a new tradition. Rosco has his Famous Basset Hound Friday, and the stupid cats get TWO traditions. It doesn't seem fair that us hounds only get one - it isn't called WHISKERS of Fury, no matter what McBoobs says.

He agreed with me, saying it was very selfless of me to want to help other hounds. He also said something about toning down the negativity on the cats, but I tune out any comments that have to do with those stupid hairballs. Anyway, this is our first entry in a new segment here at Jowls of Fury that we are calling 'Rescue Me'. In it, I will highlight a different basset hound rescue organization each week, giving some details about them and maybe mentioning a few hounds at their foster homes. I will also let you know if they do any rescue events like a waddle.

So our first rescue organization is the Michigan Basset Rescue. Their claim to fame is that they host the 'Original Basset Waddle'. Hey what a coincidence! We go to a waddle of our own. Looking at their site I see the Michigan waddle is in the spring while our waddle is in the fall.

We could do two waddles in one year! Dictation!

But as you can see from their website, they do lots of other things. They sell basset hound gifts, including a really cool cookbook written by basset chef de Hungry Hound. A few of their current hounds are awfully handsome, including Mr. Duke (an older basset gentleman who will eat anything - a hound after my own heart). So if you happen to live in Michigan or want to drive a long way to give a hound a forever home, check out Michigan Basset Rescue.

Oh yeah and here is their mascot!

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 39

Oh boy! It's getting to be Christmas time! That means they will get out a tree with lots of little toys on it for me to play with! And we get to see our family again, including puppy cousins like Aksel and Chopper and Max and Maggie and Griff and Remy! And the kids! And a ten-hour car ride to see them all! And the Christmas Pig!

In case you can't tell I like Christmas time. But I'm not so excited about the Christmas Pig...

Anyway - it is in the spirit of Christmas time that I present to you our latest famous hound. Only because it is Christmas time, I actually present to you TWO yes TWO famous hounds! It's a two-for-one hound sale at Christmas time! And it's brought to you by the store Target. Now unfortunately there is a lot of other foolishness in the commercial they appear in, but the most important part is between 13-14 seconds in. That's where our famous hounds (we don't know their names but we must assume this is Santa and Mrs. Paws) come in!

Oh little hound of Bethlehem

But wait! Santa Paws has lost his beard! I wonder what happened? I grew a beard once...

Done!

I wish I had longer legs

My brother and sister are lucky. Breezy has really long legs and it allows her to jump on things I cannot hope to jump on, like the bed or the armrest on the furniture. This lets her make the most of her snuggle time with mama and daddy. I say this makes her less of a hound but she doesn't seem to care when she is snuggling.

She doesn't seem to care at all...

Rosco isn't any taller than me but he has more of a spring in his step because he is such a lightweight. He is able to stand on his hind legs for longer than me because he is so small. If I try and do that my basset bulk gets to be too much for me. Now don't get me wrong - I have really strong legs - but my beautiful basset frame is so sturdy that it is not made to be held up by only two legs. This allows him to counter surf (which he gets in trouble for) and help be a co-pilot when we go for car rides.

This makes me really jealous.

I just wish I had longer legs so I could get on the bed or be a co-pilot. It is embarrassing to have to get help up on the couch or the bed. I want to do it all by myself. But we all have our crosses to bear, whatever that means.

Evil Uncle Casey

Well what an interesting few days it has been. We got up very early the other day and went for a car ride. It was pretty long, and we went to grandma's house. Only this time it was my other grandma, and her house is different from the grandma's house I am used to. The first thing I smelled when I came in were cats, and they are all hiding upstairs still. I think this is pretty cowardly of them, they should come down and meet their hound cousins. Daddy tells me there are five of them here, just like at our house. But these cats are all like Nibbler, they are afraid of us hounds, even though we just want to chase them and pin them down and sniff and lick them.

Then later that day my puppy cousins Aksel and Chopper came over. Now as you may remember they can be kind of mean to me, but this time after a short round of howling they remembered their manners and were actually trying to play with us. Chopper likes our toy duckies and piggies and we all played chase and fetch and chew-squeak-squeak. Aksel though... well I guess Aksel is afraid of us for some reason because he always growls and shows his teeth when he gets near us. He has to wear a collar that pokes him in the neck to remind him we are peace-loving hounds. We all went on a walk together yesterday and he was fine outside, it's just inside that he is afraid of us. Hopefully he will get over that.

Then last night I met another uncle I have. His name is Casey and he seemed like a nice enough uncle at first. We all had Thanksgiving turkey and pie and other goodies and then we fell asleep on the couch watching football. I got up this morning and did my morning necessaries like eating and pooping, and then wanted to get up on the couch to have my morning nap, when I discovered this.

What is the meaning of this?

... what is going on here? Is this how Uncle Casey treats guests in grandma's house? Rosco, Layla and I got up and gave him the customary basset hound nudge, as if to say "Hey get your lazy butt off the couch, that is our job". He responded by petting us and pushing us down onto the floor. Well! Of all the nerve!

We are guests here, so we tried not to get too upset about this. Rosco tried to jump up on him, thinking perhaps he wanted us to snuggle with him some. We just met and all so I was not too comfortable with the idea. Well as you can see below Rosco didn't get to stay up there very long, he got pushed onto the floor again.

So much for that approach.

So at that point Uncle Casey had to get up and do his morning necessaries, and we took that as our sign that he was up and was going to be doing the important human things that humans normally do. I saw an opportunity to inherit a warm spot and I wasted no time.

There, that's better.

But I was wrong. Uncle Casey came back and kicked us off the couch so he could lay down and play video games. I gave up at that point, and then I remembered something I had been hearing on TV lately - it is Black Friday, the day that evil-hearted people spend the entire day pursuing unimportant things and ignoring the needs of basset hounds. Thus I have seen the true nature of my Evil Uncle Casey.

I guess this is how we treat basset hounds when we are Evil Uncle Casey.

HOSA public service announcement

Greetings readers! Rosco here, bringing you an important holiday update! Now as you know, the holiday of Tanksgiving is coming up. At first I thought 'What a strange holiday - giving each other tanks.' Then daddy explained it was actually a day to be thankful for what we have. It is also a day to eat a ton of food and sleep a lot. Or, as we bassets call it, Wednesday.

But the thankful part got me thinking about what I am thankful for. I am really thankful for my mama, daddy, sisters, cousins, grandmas, toys, treats, food dish, and bed. I am also thankful for the dog park, walks, car rides, and belly rubs. Most of those things are pretty safe but mama and daddy are in constant danger - and that's where the Hound Dog Safety Administration (HOSA) comes in.

Now your humans face multiple threats throughout the day. They include slipping and falling, but a good HOSA dog is ready to thwart these threats at a moment's notice.

Humans trip all the time

They also fall a lot too

Slippery floors are their worst enemy; they never bother to lick up puddles

So the only real option us HOSA dogs have is to be vigilant and be ready to act when necessary. I have included a few updates to these signs below, to give you some ideas on what to watch out for.

Well if you won't clean the puddles up I guess we have to catch you...

Us hounds have sturdy backs to catch your uncoordinated bodies!

Never fear human, HOSA dog is here!

But one of the most important things we can do is help a human who is choking on their food. Now a good HOSA dog needs to understand what basset safety researchers refer to as the 'Houndlich Maneuver'. Without this breakthrough technique, lots of hounds would have no way to save their humans. But with this simple action, we can help our people make it through the traumatic experience that is choking on food. The picture below shows you exactly what to do!

See it is that simple! Go HOSA dogs!

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 38

I feel so ashamed to be a blogging hound right now. There are things that are forgivable and there are things that we ought to be put in our crates for, and this is one of those second things.

I am late for Famous Basset Hound Friday. Again. It's actually Saturday night and here we are blogging about yesterday's news.

Shameful.

But it isn't my fault! I had the words all ordered up in my hound mind last night, and I was yelping and whimpering at daddy, saying 'Hey get your lazy butt off the couch! Our fans await! Well my fans await, nobody really cares about you on this blog anyway! You are just a comedic foil!'

By the way a comedic foil is someone who is always the butt of the joke. Sounds like daddy to me!

Anyway, you can guess from us not blogging last night what daddy did instead of helping me. He slept on the couch with Layla. So here we are one night late and I have to apologize because our fans were probably disappointed. So to make it up let me introduce this week's famous hound. He is a good one.

His name is wworm! Well that is his online name, I suspect he may have a different real name, sort of like how sometimes famous authors use different names when they want to write a book. Either way wworm is definitely a famous hound. He has his own blog just like me, and he is very popular at the basset hound online forum that we belong to called Cyberhound. wworm is also a good flirter and all the girl hounds really like him. To be honest I'm kind of jealous. Mom and dad say I am a handsome hound but there really aren't any hound ladies around to be friends with. He also won a drawing contest and got his picture drawn by a very skilled artist. All my pictures are just the regular camera kind. wworm also gets dressed up for Howl-o-ween like we do.

wworm needs to eat more he's all skin and bones! Comedy is in my bones!

wworm also had to take swimming lessons and he had a birthday party and everything. So wworm is obviously a famous hound!

Our local dog park

Hello again faithful readers. Sorry for the constant delays in our blogging. With such big paws we do not type very well and daddy has to transcribe things for us. This has slowed down considerably because of duck season. As I understand it rabbit season is better, but we are not rabbit hunting dogs (at least not with guns - we sure do like to chase them though).

Anyway, awhile back I promised you I would write about our dog park. We have only been there a couple of times but it is one of the greatest places in the world. It's called Twin Lakes and there are lots of dogs that go there. We haven't met another hound there yet but maybe someday. But there are plenty of other kinds of lesser dogs, some of them even worth playing with. The park is completely fenced in so mom and dad feel comfortable letting us run around off-leash (well except Breezy, she doesn't always get along with other dogs and she is a big chicken so she has to stay close with them). This allows us to explore and smell things and contemplate the lake.

The viewing pad is really nice

Usually there are lots of dogs there, but the day we went was kind of cloudy so the fair-weather dogs stayed home. This didn't bother me too much, because my hind end did not get sniffed quite so much. But the few dogs who were there were all gigantic next to me. This one dog really liked me but his hair was too long - I am not into the shaggy dog type. Give me a handsome clean-cut hound any day.

Rosco trying to be a good brother and guard me from other boy dogs

My lord that is a tall hound

So that is a quick introduction to our dog park. We did get to meet some shorter dogs - one of them was like our buddy Scooter, a short little dachshund. These dogs make me feel a little taller.

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 37

Man what a busy week. Well for mom and dad that is. We mostly slept in our crates, chased each other around the house, barked at the neighbors and their dumb cat, and ate our food. But dad and mom are busy working. Dad keeps getting ready for waterfowl season, whatever that is. It means he is going to be getting up really early for the next 60 days to take care of duck hunters.

Anyway. We got some rain this week and that was OK - it made the yard all muddy which was fun to dig in, but that only got us in trouble. We also got in trouble for doing a little counter reconnaissance while mama made cookies today. It's really unfair to make such good-smelling stuff and then not let us hounds sniff it and eat some. But as soon as I came into the kitchen I got hollered at and sent to the other room. I even got sent to my crate today for investigating the litter box room and collecting more samples!

Oh well. At least I have Famous Basset Hound Friday today! And this week's hound is a newcomer on the famous hound scene! We found out about her while Google searching each of our names to see if there were famous hounds with our names, and sure enough we found one. This week's famous hound is "Layla Jane Basset Extraordinaire".

The hound of the moment

Layla Jane is a hound who promotes spay and neuter awareness. This is important because it keeps extra basset puppies from being born and not having good homes. Layla Jane is also a hound who likes to eat bugs like our own Layla. We even call our Layla 'Layla Jane' sometimes, but usually when she is misbehaving or trying to eat cookies from the counter. Layla Jane Basset Extraordinaire is also sassy like our Layla Jane - her latest Facebook post says 'Basset hounds don't have to squat when they pee... bonus!'. Well it's true, but I like to squat when I pee so I can take off like a rocket when I'm done. That's just how I roll.

I should also mention that when you search for 'Rosco' you get TONS of famous basset pictures, but it's actually Flash. Rosco was the human's name. Flash is the important one. There is another famous Rosco but he spells his name differently than me. But that is for another week.

So that's our latest famous hound!

Competition

Being the newest dog is nice - you get all the newest beds and toys and food bowls - and so I am always worried that mom and dad will get another hound and I won't be the newest anymore. As it is I have to always push my way between them and Rosco or Layla (even the cats sometimes!) to make sure I get all the attention.

So you can imagine my concern when they opened up a mail package the other day and said 'Oh a basset hound!' What? They are sending new bassets in the mail now? To MY house? Worst of all it was from Grandma! Let her house have a new basset! Three hounds is too much here already we don't need four! Mama has always said she wants to adopt more hounds that need homes anyway but I say three is a crowd!

Even WORSE, this hound howls like me! And it sings too! I can't sing! I howl better than Rosco and I make more noise PLUS I am the tallest. But singing is a trick I haven't learned yet. This new hound is going to take my place as the newest, most-talented hound! He even sounds all sad and whiney!  That will surely make mama want to spend more time with him.  He's got to go!

Rosco and Layla act like they don't even care!

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 35

This week's famous hound is a dear friend of mine. She is another basset blogger like Layla and Breezy and me. Her name is Annie Oakley, and like the famous human of the same name, she is a trick shot. I don't mean with guns - we hounds don't bother with those things - I mean with her belly rub achievements.

A master at work

Our buddy Annie lives in California, which is a big state with lots of beaches and sunshine. She goes on walks to the beach all the time. As I understand it there are things like dead fish and kelp and dead birds that wash up on the beach. If I were Annie I would roll in those things all the time. She also gets to eat fresh vegetables all the time. I wish we were so lucky, all we ever get is moist dog food mixed with kibble, plus lots of toys and playtime with daddy and mama, and car rides and... OK I guess we are pretty lucky too.

Anyway - Annie and her blog can be found here - you should go check her out sometime. She is our newest famous hound!

There are no such things as squirrels

Layla and Rosco are fibbing again, I can tell. They keep talking about squirrels but I don't buy it. I've never seen a squirrel at either of the houses we've lived at. The yard smelled like something but we quickly discovered what it was.

Seriously? They are going to chase a stupid toad? Toads are too small to chase and they aren't fast either. They are the sort of thing a stumpy-legged hound gets excited about because they are too slow to chase real animals. Us long-legged girls need to dream bigger. See how I had to howl at them to get them inside so I could eat my dinner?

Squirrels? Yeah, right.

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 34

Another week has gone flying by. This week we got to explore our back yard some more, and we discovered that there are a lot of leaves flying around. It makes it hard to remember where you have pooped, but fortunately we have our noses for that! Unfortunately... daddy doesn't use his nose for that. What good is a nose if you don't use it for important stuff?

Anyway, it's time for another famous hound! This week's hound was a major stage star back in the 1950s. He even helped launch the career of Elvis Presley, the king of rock n' roll! Quite the accomplished hound - he even wore a top hat to prove it!

OK you're doing good Elvis - now do that hip thing I taught you

Evidently Elvis was upset about having to do the song that way because the guy in charge of the show wouldn't let him dance and sing like he normally did. I personally think he should just be grateful to have been allowed to appear with such talent but I guess when they call you 'The King of Rock n' Roll' you get to act foolishly sometimes. If you want to watch Sherlock's patient guidance in action you can check him out below. And that's our famous hound for this week!

Famous Basset Hound Friday # 33

Well it has been a few weeks since we did a Famous Basset Hound Friday. I decided to go with a spooky hound this week because it is getting to be Halloween time. Halloween time is when all the kids in the neighborhood dress up in costumes and come to the house asking for treats. Now at first this idea really frightened me, because I do not want to share my puppy treats with the entire neighborhood.

But then daddy explained that they are actually getting people treats, which puppies are not allowed to have, because they are chocolate and toxic to dogs. I personally would like to try just a bite myself but daddy says no go. Anyway - because it is Halloween time, I decided to make our famous hound in the spirit of scary stuff.

So this week's famous hound is Walter the basset from the movie The Rage: Carrie 2. In this movie a teenage girl discovers she has psychic powers after the high school football team becomes jerks to her. Walter tries to keep her from going all psycho on them but his hound abilities are delayed after he gets hit by a car. Even though his psychic mama is getting ready to psychically take care of the football team she comes to her senses and takes him to the vet where he makes a miraculous recovery. But in the end he is unable to keep his mom from abusing her powers and she dies. This was pretty sad for me, but he does get to stay with one of the football players who was nice to his mama so I guess it is an OK ending.

Walter making an emergency trip to the vet

Boy if I had psychic hound powers I would float all of mama's delicious cupcakes down to the floor where I could eat them.

There would be nothing wrong with using my hound powers like this.

Another Famous Basset Hound Friday cancelled

I hate to keep cancelling them but unprecedented events keep coming up. This time around we have been moving all of our stuff to our new house (which meets basset approval - Layla tells me she will be blogging about this later on so I won't spoil the surprise). We also didn't have the internet at our new house until today so we missed lots of blogging, but we're back now.

But the biggest thing we haven't been able to keep up on is telling everyone how our family is doing. Daddy is doing OK, except he had allergies and said his brains were leaking slowly out of his head. But mama needs the power of the paw. My buddy Mango uses that phrase whenever there is a sick hound that needs everyone's good thoughts, so it ought to work here too.

That's Mango there (the one that looks like a horse). With paws that big he must be a good healer.

Our mama was sick yesterday and then she went to see the people vet last night. She didn't come home all night or most of the day today but she finally came back this evening. We wanted to jump on her and welcome her home but dad wouldn't let us. Then we noticed she was moving slowly and she is sleeping now. Dad says not to worry that she will get better, but that she had surgery and needs to rest. Her appendix came out apparently. Fortunately us hounds don't have appendixes. Still, mama needs all our basset well wishes to get better so we can jump on her again.

So that is what has been going on lately. It's good to be back! Stay tuned for more blogs.

Jowls of Fury will be offline for a bit

The hounds wanted me to let everyone know that we will be offline for a little while.  We just bought a house and we are moving all our stuff into it.  The internet is supposed to be hooked up on Thursday but we tried this company once before and they couldn't meet our needs - so we will see what happens.  In the meantime, rest assured that Rosco, Layla, and Breezy are doing their part to help us move boxes and furniture around.  The cats are doing their part to keep boxes from flying out of the room by weighing them down.

On a side note, please check out the blog Pet Blogs United.  They hosted us this week at this link.  PBU is a good place to find other interesting blogs written by dogs, cats, sheep, or any other pet.  Also remember that you can become a fan of Jowls of Fury on Facebook, where we post no real additional content whatsoever.

Thanks again for reading us, we'll be back online as soon as we can.