This is fun!

September 30th, 2008 - 9:09 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and picture comment lovers:

Our friend Maureen and Slinky submitted Chaps to a picture comment contest on the totally bassetabulous site of

Bryanprindville!

I love this site, it is so cool. I bet a lot of you do as well! Do you want to leave a comment about Chaps? It’s totally fun!

Slurp!

Bryan states,

“If you are so interested you could get yourself a t-shirt and provide a little basset support yourself. T-shirts are available in adult and child sizes. Also if you are in the Saratoga State Park area you may want to consider swinging by yourself.”

More fun later and by the way, book mark this site for your daily enjoyment!

Are you a Daily Drooler?

September 30th, 2008 - 4:04 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Daily Drool Lovers: Wow, if you love or even like bassets I sure hope you belong to this list. I first got on the Internet in 1994 and I think I signed up for the Daily Drool when it started in 1996 or 1997? I think I might have been one of the original members, but I am not sure. Anyway, I digress……

For the first time since I joined the drool, I have a basset up for Hound of the Week! Guess who?

OK, you give up? It’s the Mayor. I did not even nominate him, his good friends Maureen and Slinky did much to my surprise and to his glory! I just went over and checked out the votes and he is winning by a slim margin! Have you voted yet? You have to be a member of the list to vote. Here is the link if you want to spend countless hours laughing and crying about our beloved breed.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY DROOL – CLICK HERE!

Vote for Chaps, Vote for Chaps, Vote for Chaps. He is a bit down, since he did not make the cut for the Sr. Hounds Abound Calendar. He will get over it, and this would really help! LOL! This is his campaign photo.

More bribing folks to vote later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

Emma’s surgery is set for Friday morning

September 30th, 2008 - 4:04 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma lovers: Our girl is having her surgery done this Friday. I hate doing big procedures like this over a weekend, but her doctor will be around all weekend, so I feel OK about it. I have Grandma and Grandpa on deck to hold her paw when I am out of the room. We like to keep a close eye on her and just give comforting words. I won’t let Chaps around her until Saturday afternoon.

Here we go again. The dreaded cone……..Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

This is Emma after her first eye enucleation.

More later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

Profile of Joan Urban – CH basset breeder for 1/2 of a century

September 30th, 2008 - 2:02 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and WOW! Lovers: I just found this article on the Internet and it is so interesting. I have no desire to show, but boy if I did, this is how I would wanna roll. Totally!

WATCH THE SLIDE SHOW WITH AUDIO CLICK HERE

After you click on the link, give it some time to load. I have a very high speed connection and took me several minutes. Mine did not start playing automatically, I had to click the left arrow after it finished loading.

START OF ARTICLE

Buying a dangle-earred basset hound for her sons in 1959 changed a Flour Bluff woman’s life.

Three years later Joan Urban and her boys had led their pup, Pierre, into a hound hierarchy as Mexican and American champion basset. After the boys’ interest in breeding bloodhounds waned for baseball, she already was hooked on showing and breeding the bass-baying bassets.

Now almost half a century later Urban, 76, has trotted more than 65 stubby-legged bassets into the breeds’ championships.

“It became a doggy world for me because these guys are such comedians,” said Urban, while wrapping her hands around her house-hound Aggie’s ears. The basset breed of hunting dogs emerged about 400 years ago in France, she said.

Urban loaded nine of her champion canines this past weekend into her temperature-sensitive recreational vehicle to show them today at the Fort Worth Basset Club Show. She’s the guest speaker and will talk about her many years of showing the hounds. On Tuesday the Urban brood will compete in the Basset Hound Club of America National Dog Show in Plano, against about 500 other bassets from around the world.

All of her current dogs have earned enough show points to be classified as champions, and five of them have won top recognition in national mixed-breed competitions.

“People guess I just like ugly dogs,” Urban said. “But to me they’re beautiful. They’re just big dogs with droopy eyes and muzzles on short legs.”

Urban has become a legendary breeder in basset hound circles with her book “A New Owner’s Guide to Basset Hounds,” and other publications. She was co-founder in the late 1960s of the Basset Hound Club of Corpus Christi, which swelled to become The Basset Hound Club of Greater San Antonio. She and club co-founder Knox Williams produced the “Hound Crier” magazine that linked basset lovers coast to coast.

“Joan certainly has the respect of most basset breeders and members of the Basset Hound Club of America,” said Richard Nance, coordinator of the club’s national show. He met Urban about 12 years ago as she judged his dogs, he said.

She has been judging breed shows for about 30 years including judging in the famed 136-year-old Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in the mid-1980s at Madison Square Garden and the first national basset show last year in Gumma, Japan.

She was invited to judge because it was her national champion dog, Bomber, that was bought by hound hunters from Japan who were interested in unveiling the breed there.

Other people from around the world come to Urban to buy her breed.

Most recent was Manfred Sons of Hellenthal, Germany, who stayed with Urban for pointers on showing bassets before he bought two winning dogs to compete in his country.

Manfred and his two new hounds walked through dense pastures among Urban’s cattle two weeks ago, before he strutted them along a concrete patio in show ring style for Urban’s feedback. She shared the nuances of her training success and instructed him on proper positioning of the dogs for judge inspections.

Since returning to Germany, Sons has won a competition with one of his new dogs.

As for Urban, she has never shown nine dogs at once, but because the show was in Texas she felt the need to “go for it,” she said.

“I don’t know how long I can keep going,” she said with a laugh. “Just hope when I die it’s in the ring showing a really good dog I bred.”

END OF ARTICLE

Urban shows today at the basset hound nationals. Good Luck Joan

More awe inspiring folks later…..Cat, Chaps and Emma

Emma fake eye update:{

September 29th, 2008 - 9:09 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma update Lovers:

Well, we went to the eye doctor today and Emma has to have her fake eye removed. The girls that work at the office were very sad that they could not see Emma again. I have to tell you that a few tears were shead.

The doctor was shaken as well. He really loves Emma’s spirit and loves seeing her.

This was a really big deal at the ophhtalmologist office. Loosing a client as sweet as Emma hit them all a bit hard.

One of the girls took her break early just to spend time with Emma.

The enucleation of the prosthetic will be done by her regular vet.

I will talk to him tomorrow. I will talk to you tomorrow.

More later….Sigh

Rainbow bridge – Waiting place

September 28th, 2008 - 10:10 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hounds and Rainbow bridge – Waiting place, visitors.

Have you seen this on my website?

If you look over to the right, under Navigation (at the top) you will see – Rainbow Bridge – Waiting Place.

http://www.bassethoundtown.com/blog/rainbow-bridge

I love our ATB residents.

Everyone of them. I did this page in honor of them. If you have a hound that you would like to wait for you in this place, please send me their picture and a bit about them. You can go to my contact page and accomplish all of this.

More ATB hounds later…….Sigh, Cat, Chaps and Emma

Happy Birthday Google! Wow 10 years old!

September 27th, 2008 - 12:12 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Google Lovers: Wow, Google is 10 years old today. I would have guessed they were older for some reason. I was trying to remember what I was doing in 1998. I actually looked for an old calendar, but the oldest I could find was 2000. Then, like a beacon in the night, it hit me. This picture I drew of Lily in May of 1998. I remember it like it was yesterday. She was laying on the couch, and I was sitting across from her. I am not a person who draws but at that moment I felt compelled to pick up a pad and pencil and sketch her.

As I sketched her while she slept, my idea was born. Just like Google started their company, 10 years ago, I started my dream that evening in May, as dusk was setting in.

I was going to write a book about the love of my life. Lily!

I am so glad that it is Google’s birthday today and they intriged me to look back at my life 10 years ago. Google has been a part of my life since they started their company.
Happy Birthday Google and thanks for helping me accomplish my dreams.

More dreams to be accomplished later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

LQQK! It’s my kids in 2004!

September 26th, 2008 - 8:08 pm KY Time

Howllo fellow hound and looking back lovers! I promised my readers that I had some really cute vintage stuff! Here it is. This is Chaps and Emma with Grandma and I going shopping for toys. This was about a month after we got home from TX with the kids. This is August of 2004. I showed it to Grandma today and she said, “look how thin Chaps was.” I had to LOL!

Well, he has gained about 8 pounds. (cough)

Fun, Fun, Fun! Enjoy the show!

More toys later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

Enjoy!

More shopping for toys later……..Cat, Chaps and Emma

We are holding our own debates tonight!

September 26th, 2008 - 6:06 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Debate Lovers, (or not)!

We here at Bassethoundtown.com are holding our own debates tonight. The main question?

Who is in charge of the dog door?

Chaps is holding steady on his issue of blocking the path, while Emma is pushing to crack through the plastic barrier!

Who will rein triumphant? Stay tuned! More potty politics later……Cat, Chaps and Emma

This message was approved by both Chaps and Emma – Slurp!

Emma’s health update

September 26th, 2008 - 3:03 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma’s Heath Lovers: (That cracks me up)

Anyway, I really do know that many of you care about our Emma and I love you for it. Her fake eye is looking about the same. She still has the corneal abrasion.

I talked to my regular vet the day after her eye doctor saw her and he told me that usually, when this happens to a fake eye, it’s the beginning of the end of the prosthetic. All paws are pointing to Emma having it removed next week. She is doing great and feeling fine. I just wanted to update everyone who has asked about her.

Poor Emma, she is such a sweet gal. Our girl will be just fine, we just need to get her over this hump. Oddly enough, I know this sounds funny, but, I am going to miss that stupid fake eye.

More update later……..Cat, Chaps and Emma

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