Last week it looked as though we were going to have to put Oscar to sleep. He was in a lot of obvious pain and not acting like himself. This typically wouldn’t be justification for having a beloved pet put down but it wasn’t the first time that this has happened. Holly took him to the vet and we discovered that he had tweaked his back really badly. The vet gave him a shot of what I can only imagine was liquid awesome and a few prescriptions: a pain killer and a muscle relaxer. Since then, Oscar has been doing much better and has returned to his old, lovable self. We were very grateful that our vet knew what to do to get him feeling well again.
As we were watching Oscar suffer, and as the possibility occurred to both Holly and I that she may not be bringing him home from the vet, we decided that it would be a good idea to start looking at replacement dogs. Granted, there is no dog in the world that could replace the awesomeness that is Oscar, but speaking from experience, if you are accustomed to having dogs in the house, not having them around is no fun. We also knew that it would make things easier on the kids since they love having a dog so much.
As we were looking at potential replacements, the idea of getting a basset hound came up. I had a basset hound once. It was right after Emma was born. The timing was a big mistake. New baby plus new puppy equals lots of stress. Holly despised my puppy then and I think that part of her still does. She was a very vocal dog that drooled a lot and the idea of having her around a newborn baby drove Holly insane. Needless to say, Freckles didn’t last very long in our family. Ever since then though, Holly has known that I would push to get another basset hound when the time was right.
Since Oscar fortunately came home from the vet, I figured that our discussions regarding getting a new dog or dogs would be put on the back burner until it was appropriate. That was before MouseHunt was down for 8 hours on Tuesday and Holly didn’t have anything to do on the computer. I’m not saying that she normally sits at the computer all day playing this game. What I am saying is that when she was on the computer, she needed to look at something else since the game was unavailable. She chose to look at dogs. I guess it was a good day for this type of activity because Holly found two purebred female bassets that needed good homes.
Holly started sending me links to the ads and I immediately started calling on them. I discovered that one of the two dogs was already promised to somebody but that a nine-month-old was still available. Apparently the family that was giving her away had a baby come a few months too early and no longer had the time for the dog. After some discussion with the owner, I decided that this dog would make a lovely addition to our dog-loving family.
Enter Hailey. She is a wonderful dog. She doesn’t make noise, keeps her slobber to a minimum, and sleeps a lot. In fact, she’s pretty lazy. She also seems to be pretty well mannered. Oscar seems to like her even though she tends to get on his nerves a bit and the kids absolutely love her. Even Holly, the woman who hates basset hounds, is starting to warm up to her. I’m excited to see how well she adapts to being in our family.
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Ahhh…….! Look at that face!!!