My recent visit to grandma's house

I guess I will write about Thanksgiving, since all the other hounds are too busy sleeping to do any real blogging.  It is a shame that an old hound like me has to take the time to do the work that younger hounds should be doing.  It wasn't like this in my day.

We went to grandma's house for Thanksgiving and got to see the family.  I was happy to see everyone again, but I did not care for the long car ride.  Breezy is always a bit of a drama queen and makes a big fuss if anyone bumps into her.  She needs to get over herself.

Drama queen

There is all kinds of wildlife at Grandma's, both inside and out.  There are lots of cats and dogs there, and most of them are polite enough to leave me alone.  Grandpa builds me my own personal ramp when I'm there.  I like it, but it is a bit of a challenge to go down due to how slippery it can be.  It is even worse in the snow.  And we did get a little snow, and all the dogs had fun in it.  I'm not much of a snow hound being a dignified southern basset gentleman.  We didn't get that much snow where I'm from.

Layla is built for this stuff

Of course the other hounds all went ballistic and ran all over the place.

Rosco has lost his potential dignified basset status because of this picture

Layla and Breezy behaving very unlady-hound-like

This is how a dignified hound does it

We all had a good time, but we eventually had to go back home.  But we will see grandma's family again before too long.

Son of the Christmas Pig Monster

I had not realized it was Christmas time again.  Normally you get a warning like snow or cold weather but it has been pretty warm and there has been no snow.  Daddy killed a deer and has killed some ducks so we know it was fall, but I mean we were at the dog park only a few weeks ago!  But Christmas time means Christmas Pig Monster time.  I was really happy last year because the duct tape job that mama and daddy did to patch him up did not hold up so well and they had to throw him away.  Life seemed to be much safer. But then they started dragging out Christmas time stuff, and like any safety-minded hound, I got a little concerned.  You just never know.

 What are you putting up this year?  It isn't...  pig-related, is it?

Well, I am sorry to report that they bought ANOTHER Christmas Pig Monster.  I call him 'Son of the Christmas Pig Monster'.  He is just as evil and stupid as his evil and stupid father.  They put him out there this morning.

Damn it

I was not a happy hound.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The horror

Rescue Me # 2 (and a year in review)

We have decided to end the year here at Jowls of Fury on a high note. So let us introduce you to our second 'Rescue Me' hound.

His name is Livingston, and he is being taken care of by Hounds Haven Basset Rescue of Iowa. He is a 4 year old handsome boy who is looking for a forever home and a gotcha day to celebrate forever and ever.

How can you not love this face

My lady hound heart got all aflutter when I read his page. Mr. Livingston was found in rural Missouri - where I live! - running around as a stray dog. He had a really bad eye infection and the vet determined that his right eye doesn't produce any tears. This means he needs to have eye drops put in them to keep it moist and healthy. My heart breaks for this poor hound, because I hate medicine and the very idea of them putting it in my eyeball makes me want to bite someone. Livingston looks very rugged and in need of a lady hound's attention in that photo, squinting with his one eye that needs the eye drops. He is also afraid of people but loves little kids, kind of like Breezy. This means he was probably abused as a puppy. If he were around I would give him kisses and take care of him. But I'm sure he will find a good home with such a sweet face. If you would like to know more about Livingston you can find his page here, and you can find Hound Haven's page here.

So now on to the year in review! We have had a really busy year here at Jowls of Fury. We started new traditions like Famous Basset Hound Friday, and the other dumb ones that cats do. We tried to win prizes for Mango Minster but we weren't successful. We survived Snowpacolypse and we gave Breezy her gotcha day (although I didn't like her much at first). We had to deal with extra cats coming in the house and then we had to take the blog back from evil cats. We got to see our Michigan family this spring, and we got to go swimming at great-grandma's house and see our other family there. We didn't care for the swimming part. We had a basset GQ page (and hopefully we'll have another one soon), and we went on many car rides. Unfortunately I had to go to the vet's twice this year and I hope I never have to go again. I discovered how tasty cicadas were even if they were really noisy, and I rediscovered my dislike of daddy's walking habits. We began our HOSA dog training and we went to our favorite basset party event in the world, the waddle! We moved into a new house, one without so many steps! We visited a new dog park and we will be visiting it a lot in the future.

Oh and check out this really neat basset statue we got from Aunt Melissa, Uncle Zane, and puppy cousins Chopper and Aksel.

We have good puppy cousins

Plus grandma got me some new toys for Christmas, a new squeaky pig and a new ball.

Rosco is trying to steal my ball

Oh and Breezy is a big wuss about snow, it is the best part of winter.

I am in my element

But at some point you get cold and have to run inside for the heat!

OK enough of this, basset power activate!

So all in all it was a good year. We had our ups and downs but we ended it with a nice time and lots of love and family. We would be remiss not to remember the hounds we lost this year, so we dedicate our last blog post of 2011 to our hound friends (like Woody, Romeo, Cleo, and Flash) who are at the bridge waiting for their people to join them. If we forgot any other hounds who went to the bridge this year we apologize - please leave their name in a comment, we don't want to leave anyone out.

A late Merry Christmastime

We have been gone for over a week, and it's time to get everyone updated!

We spent a big part of Christmas up at Grandma's house in Michigan. We saw Max and Maggie again, and also Griff and Remy and a new dog named Tinker. Tinker didn't get to run with us because she was tied to her car (her mama is afraid she would be too aggressive but she seemed fine to us - she had a thick fur coat and a really good howl, almost as good as mine). Now as you may recall, I did not always get along with Max and Maggie. However, I decided to try and be a good puppy cousin this year and have a good time. As it turns out they were much better behaved. I only had to howl at Maggie and Max every once in awhile. If Max tried the puppymaking game I threw him to the floor.

This happened a few times. I really am that smokin' hot

Now I still did not like Griff - he is such a big lummox and he runs into everything and his tail is like a furry wrecking ball - so I had to howl in his face quite a few times. Oh well, that's just the way family is at Christmastime.

Imagine this in motion, not a pretty sight

We had a white Christmastime, sort of. We got snow the day before and we had to go out and pee in it. Layla and Rosco thought the snow was great, while Max and Maggie didn't seem to care. I guess they are used to it, but I am a Missouri Hound at heart, and we do not do well with snowpacolypse, or whatever Layla calls it.

So... you're not going to carry me out there?

You expect me to pee WHERE?

But the highlight of the Christmastime was definitely the kids. I met the kids earlier this year - you might remember me and Miss Ashlee played basset princess and her personal chauffeur - and we got to see them again. The kids remind me of the good parts of my old home, the parts where I got to play with kids and chase them and protect them from lummox dogs like Griff. I did my best to protect everyone from everything but I am only one dog, and I can only do so much.

I couldn't protect everyone; Drake was OK but Ashlee got slobbered on

Another upside to the kids is that they are short and they drop food all the time. In fact we got lots of treats at Grandma's, way more than we do at home.

All you had to do was be patient

They didn't always eat everything and a patient dog got the goodies

I was starting to think about staying there forever but then we had to get in the car and go back home. Now the long car rides are not my favorite thing. I don't like to be jostled when I am sleeping and between the bumpy road, the packed car, and the lummox brother and sister I have, I got barely any sleep. Plus the cats - yes all five of them - were in on this car ride and I had a hard time sleeping when they needed to be constantly monitored so they didn't get out of the crate.

These conditions are horrible

That reminds me, Grandma's has other cats too. They are different from our cats and they also need to be closely monitored and possibly chased. This one cat named Maisy looks like a furry Ottoman that ran into a brick wall. She makes lots of noise and I tried to chase her a few times, but dad always stopped me.

If you don't keep them in line they get all Terminator on you...

Anyway... back to the car ride home. As I said, I did not enjoy myself, but mama's car ride home was even worse. She was really sick. Now normally when I get sick the best thing to do is try and have a treat and go lay in my crate for awhile. Well, mama didn't want any treats and the only crate had 5 cats and a litter box in it. So she toughed it out and rode most of the way home sitting up, but finally daddy told her to lay down in the back so she could get comfortable. That opened up the front seat for me, and I got to be the co-pilot!

You're doing great, but keep your eyes on the road

A co-pilot's job is making sure that daddy doesn't speed or hit anything, and not to let any slow dogs pass us by. I did my best but you can only do so much with such poor raw material.

I think that Shar-Pei just flipped us off

Floor it daddy we need to leave him in the dust!

Anyway, once we got home, mama slept for a long time and daddy went to the great-grandma's house for another Christmastime. I stayed home to make sure that darn Christmas Pig Monster stayed in the yard where he belonged. I thought I heard daddy come home later but it was just the neighbor, or possibly another Christmas Pig Monster joining forces. But no. Just the neighbor. Then the next day, daddy came home, and he brought my other grandma and grandpa with him! I was so excited to have someone else to lay upon!

Grandpa's lap is a pretty good place to take a nap

See what a beautiful bunch of ladies we are? And then there's Rosco...

Well we were all having a great Christmastime when who should appear at my doorstep but Evil Uncle Casey. I sprang from my bed to bite him and howl in his face, but his heart grew three sizes that day and he decided to make up for his earlier transgressions by giving us all a treat. I was suspicious at first, like maybe he had poisoned it or something, but Layla and Rosco wolfed theirs down and they didn't die or anything. So I ate mine and decided that Evil Uncle Casey was going to be known from then on as Not Too Bad Uncle Casey (until he screws up again).

So that was my Christmastime! Hope everyone else had a good one.

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!

Famous Basset Hound Friday #12

Continuing on our tradition of old-tymie famous hounds, we are reaching way back in the pre-history of hound comfort. To the days before air conditioning, Beggin' Strips, and Chicken McNuggets. Back to the days before there was a GABR basset waddle. If you can believe it, back to the days when basset hounds were not given the proper credit as the best dogs on earth.

Shocking!

This bleak world existed until February 27, 1928, when Time Magazine ran their cover with a baby basset hound. We don't know this hound's name, or even if it was a boy or a girl, but they finally delivered the light of jowls, droopy ears, and slinging saliva to a dark world that was desperate for a good hound.

We don't know how you people survived this long without us

This magazine cover was viewed as the event that started the basset hound's meteoric rise to popularity in American culture. The English and the French had already discovered us nearly a century before and were obviously better off for it, while Americans lived in misery and squalor.  Agony ruled the day until we finally came along and gave them the opportunity to feel better by taking care of us (belly rubs are a win-win situation as far as I'm concerned).

If you would like to read the article that accompanied it you can click here. It is supposedly told from the perspective of the basset hound puppy on the cover; I read it and didn't quite get that from the story but it is good nonetheless. The article is about the Westminster Kennel Dog Club Show that was going on at the time. Of course it was written in 1928 and the standards have changed a little bit, but the author got a few things right about basset hounds at least.

So there's your famous hound for the week. I think I'm going to take a nap; there is more snow on the ground today. Also my belly needs to be rubbed and Dad looks like he is feeling lonely so...

Famous Basset Hound Friday #7

Wow, what a week it has been. We got a new sister! Her name is Breezy. Mom and dad call her 'Breezy-peasy', which isn't as cool of a name as 'Puppyman', but what can you do? She is kind of shy but she seems alright. She smells REALLY good and I want to play with her a lot but dad stops me from doing some things. Too bad. But on a good note we have been on walks like every day this week! It's been warm and the mountains of snow are gone and - best of all - there are squirrels in this neighborhood! They live way in the back where there are woods but at least we can see them now.

So anyway, this week's famous hound doesn't have a name, he's just called 'dog'. Not very creative. But 'dog' is from the TV show Columbo, which is about a brilliant detective (who probably learned everything he knows from his hound) that solves all kinds of crimes. According to Wikipedia, 'dog' might have actually been named Fang (what a cool hound name) but that is just speculation.

In the video below Columbo has the mistaken impression that hounds will do what people want them to. We are not like silly labs or german shepherds (but we could be lethal weapons if we WANTED to - I myself am a torpedo dog very often). We do the things we want to do and we let people enjoy us! 'Dog' was definitely a hound's hound!

How to survive Snowpocalypse (and live to blog about it)

Hello readers, Layla here. Today we have had over 20 inches of snow fall on us. Now, being a Michigan basset hound, snow is no big deal to me. However, I have heard a lot of people whining and complaining about "Snowpocalypse".

Please.

We bassets are uniquely equipped to handle these kinds of situations, following a few simple rules. I'll share them with you!

1. Get lots of sleep - I can't stress this one enough! Too many hounds get ready to go out into the cold and don't think about how strenuous it can be.

See? This can wear a hound out quickly. Prepare for your adventure by sleeping more often than usual.

A good snuggle buddy helps

Especially if they make good pillows

Soft blankies are also important

2. Post lookouts - It's crucial to remain up to date on weather conditions. Make sure to give this job to someone sufficiently low on the totem pole.

These guys are perfect for the job

3. Check the weather often - You can only trust your idiot lookouts so far. At some point you have to do the job yourself. Be creative; take full advantage of the modern conveniences to maximize your napping/weather checking potential.

Weatherfreaks.com says another 15 inches by tonight...

4. Prepare your human for shoveling - Humans are notoriously slow and stupid to pick up on basset hound needs. They need some assistance in this category. Given how low we are to the ground, we need to have a path shoveled for us in snow this deep. But you can't just send them outside without the proper gear.

Make sure they put their feet in the right leg holes

Make sure their zippers are closed, they forget this part all the time

Yeah, I guess you're ready to go to work. Nice hat, by the way

You might want to give them some love in case they get lost and die

OK, now get out there and start shoveling

Remember: they're built to do the work, we're built to do the sleep

5. Regular exercise - For them, not you. If you let them get out of the habit of exercising they will get fat and lazy. If you are creative you can make it appear that you are 'playing' with them, so they enjoy it more.

6. Supervise them often and give them good instructions - An unsupervised human will inevitably get into trouble. If you don't watch them they will wander off into a pond and drown. They also tend to work better when you woof at them every so often, so keep an eye on them.

I think you missed a spot

Remember: supervision is best achieved from the floor

7. Know when to come inside

Ok I think you have this under control, I'll be inside by the furnace if you need me

Oh... right... we can't open doors

8. Yetis - They come out during blizzards. Be ready.

I'm ready for you Mr. Abominable