Well, here we are on the eve of a new year…

December 31st, 2012 - 2:02 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and New Year Lovers.  I for one am looking forward to the new year with much hope.  I will be glad to see 2012 in the past.  I have many plans for the future and I look forward to sharing them with the residents.

For now…

The Mayor’s son, Colby Chaps wants to wish you a very safe New Year’s Eve and a bright and beautiful 2013.

Colby Chaps looks like howl I feel.  I don’t think I will be ringing in the new year but ya never know.

What will you be doing?

More wanting all of you to be safe and sound later….Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB wearing their collar bells so Mommy can hear them at midnight.

I Wish I Had A River I Could Skate Away On…

December 30th, 2012 - 12:12 am KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Skating Away on River Lovers…Today I decided to make the tribute video for our Mayor.  Rivers meant so much to us as we meandered through the twists and turns, walking and smelling all of the rivers so wide.

I do wish I had a river I could skate away on…Thank you Joni Mitchell

I miss our Mayor so much.

More loving our Mayor Later…Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB with Chaps and Grandpa going on long walks.

 

Thank You Fellow Residents…

December 28th, 2012 - 11:11 am KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Resident Lovers….

I just want to come out of my haze and thank you all so much for the outpouring of comments and e-mails.  I have also received a lovely concrete bench and some flowers for Chaps memory.  I will being doing a much more detailed blog on that later.  Rest assured it is beautiful and very touching to Grandma and I.  Again, I will enjoy sharing more information/pictures about this later.

It has been very hard and I know many of you have lost hounds in the past.  For some reason we always think (or I do) that our particular hound is the best and their passing is the worst ever.  Funny howl that works.  But I do know one thing for sure.  Chaps was sure loved by all of his residents and I know that he was a part of your life too.  He was the esteemed Mayor and we all looked up to him.

This is a picture of the day I picked him up after the long, long drive to TX.

I call it the picture of TWO LOTTERY WINNERS.  We both won the life lottery.  What were the chances?  At this point Emma had be put back with her litter.  She was so excited and jumping all over Chaps and he just wanted to be with me.

Again, thank you so much for caring so much about our town and our Mayor and of course Grandma and I.

More blogging about reality later…Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB watching me cry….

 

Mayor Chaps Wayne Rudert * 10/17/00 – 12/25/12

December 26th, 2012 - 12:12 am KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Mayor Chaps Wayne Rudert Lovers….

Tonight was torture for Grandma and I as we lost huge gaping sections of our souls.  Chaps has left us.  He bloated this evening and was not able to recover.  He passed in the bed that him and I had shared for close to a decade.  He took his last breath in the spot that so much love occurred between us.  The hours spent loving and cuddling him in this spot were beyond measure and a treasure.

I am in shock but able to report this devastating news.  I can barely see my eyes are so swollen and my throat is almost closed up.

He was everything to us. This picture was taken years ago.

Hospice will be here in the morning to carry him away. I will remain in shock.

I want to thank the residents for loving him so dearly.  I know you are all in shock as well.

More loving Chaps for as long as I live later…Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB with Chaps tonight.  I know now Emma was sending me signs all day for a reason.  Chaps has a portion of Grandpas ashes in his paws tonight.

 

 

Merry Christmas to all of the residents…

December 25th, 2012 - 1:01 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Christmas Lovers…We sure hope that all of the residents who celebrate Christmas are having a wonderful day.  The Mayor, Grandma and I are enjoying the day in each others company.  Of course we had to share our gifts from Chaps son’s family.  We waited until Christmas Eve to open our rather large box to a plethora of wrapped goodies!

First off we opened Chaps gift.

OMDawg…is this the cutest picture ever?  He had so much fun with this crazy toy with all the legs.  I am pretty sure Audra would had rubbed this toy all over Colby Chaps and Abby because the Mayor went wild smelling and smelling his new toy.

Then we opened these 2 delicate ornaments with pictures inside.

The first one is of Chaps.  It is kind of hard to see in the picture but I had to try.

Here is Emma’s ornament.

I am not going to pack them away with the Christmas stuff.  I am going to keep them out year round.  They are so whimsical and fun.

Then, the gift to make everyone smile.

Can you believe howl cute?  Yes, also the Mayor…hehehe

See her name stitched on the pillow?

Now, look at this side.  Such a perfect way to honor our girl and her memory.

I will cherish this pillow…Thank you Audra, Mike, Jourdan, Charlene, Glenn, Colby Chaps and Abby.

More Merry Christmas later..Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB sending me messages all day.

Another YouTube Blast From the Bassethoundtown past.

December 24th, 2012 - 10:10 am KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Letting it Snow Lovers…Back in 2007 Grandma and I made this video.  It was as fun as it looks.  That Emma loved playing in the snow.

Gosh, I think it has been about 17 or 18 years since bassethoundtown had a white Christmas.  No snow is predicted for this year either.

I really love these old videos.

More loving the old videos later and pledging to take more in 2013, Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB playing in clouds of snow…

Friday night update about the Mayor…

December 21st, 2012 - 6:06 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Friday Night Mayor Lovers…Well, it has been 8 full days since our Mayor had his bloat incident.  We have been following all of the guidelines such as 2 – 3 small meals a day and limiting water before and after.

Until this afternoon he was doing good.  He had a slight incident after his lunch and vomited up some of the same stiff white foam.  It was scary but I played it cool and got him settled.  He is fine now.  His innards are probably still tender.  Plus we have the added factor of his anxiety.  Last night we had a very bad winter wind storm that lasted most of the day today.  He actually handled that pretty well.

I thought the residents might like to see a few of our Howl-o-day pictures…

We decided not to decorate too much this year.  We wanted to keep all of the hoopla to a minimum for our Mayor.

Grandma and I did make it to our traditional holiday brunch which was so much fun.

The Mayor did great at home by himself.

More loving the Mayors innards later…Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB putting up her howl-o-day decorations with all of the other lovers…

End of the world and falling off the cliff all in one night! Really?

December 20th, 2012 - 8:08 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and weird night lovers…Tomorrow is the doomsday of all doomsday’s, 12-21-12.

The end of the Maya calendar.

Unfortunately, the Mayor does not have as high of hopes for fiscal cliff.  If it were up to him, it would have never happened in the first place.

But for now he has a suggestion for the cliff divers.  Oreos, milk and common sense.

More loving common sense later…Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB dunking oreos in mild with Grandpa…

 

 

2002 Bassethoundtown Howl-o-day Card…

December 17th, 2012 - 9:09 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and years gone by howl-o-day cards lovers.  This particular card was a huge graphic design project that took me months of planning.

I had so much fun with this card.  Everyone in it is a family member.  I also love the gift falling into the big dipper.

I could blog for about an hour on the details.

More loving seeing Grandpa as Santa later….Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB hanging out at the little dipper….

Your Mayor has a Public Heath Announcement Regarding Bloat, also know as, Gastric Torsion!!!

December 16th, 2012 - 2:02 pm KY Time

Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Health Announcement Lovers….

Thursday evening the Mayor had a bloat incident. He is recovering.

Link to information about Bloat in this website with links to other information.  Read this over and over again to be prepared if this happens to your beloved hound. 

I am just now updating the residents about this because I do not like to drag everyone through the urgent and sometimes hysterical moments of an emergency.  I wanted to wait a few days and see if I could report good news instead of frantic news. I am pleased to report good news.

First off, let me do some background.  Bloat is a serious emergency.  You cannot “wait and see”.  I urge all of you to read the link above and all the links contained within.  I also urge you to print out this bloat chart that was a critical guide for my BFF and I Thursday night.

PRINT NOW!

I have this hanging in my kitchen cabinet along with the dog CPR chart.

My BFF was over for Pizza and Presents Thursday night.  We have been BFF since kindergarten.

Chaps got excited as he always does when she comes over.  We both noticed him drinking an excessive amount of water with big glups breathing in air.  It just went right over my head.  This is a huge no no.  If you ever hear this take the water up immediately.  Please go to the links and read all of this because what happened to Chaps was basically text book.

He began throwing up white stiff foam and he was in shear pain and panic.  I went and grabbed the bloat chart and BFF was reading out loud.  Within seconds Chaps abdomen swelled up to about a basketball.

Several seconds later Janie grabbed him and Chaps and I were both in her back seat heading to the ER.  During our trip I had my arms around his stomach.  As we turned a corner he was able to release the contents which was about 2 gallons of water, fluid, and food…projectile.  His stomach went down like a balloon.

We made it to the ER and it was obvious the emergency was over but that is no sure bet that it would not continue.  So we waited our turn.

We did not have to wait too long because I think we were the only ones there.

The Vet technician came in and was amazing.  She referred to what he had as a food bloat (which was not exactly true) and all of his vitals were normal.

When the doctor did come in, he was cold and down right shameful to his profession.  I did not think I could experience a worse Vet than the specialist I took Emma to for her liver but I did.  Amazing but true.  This Vet had 25 places for me sign my name regarding Chaps.  He was so paranoid about getting his money and not being sued it totally clouded his mind regarding standard of care and the needs of the patient.  This is the same place that Emma went but during the day it is a speciality clinic and at night it is the ER.

The vet, whom I will be reviewing online, was pushing and pushing for me to spend 1000 dollars that night to do a complete work-up of Chaps and he was saying that on top of that he would probably need to do surgery. No wonder he was so aggressive, I basically signed away all of my rights to get a vet to look at Chaps.  It is just uncalled for.  In other words….Plain and simple harassment.

I asked howl much the office visit was (80.00) and left.

So, the next day I took Chaps to his regular vet.

Dr. Doan took 2 x-rays of the area.

He did see some mild to moderate gas and a slight twist area that caused the bloat that he was not too worried about.  He felt fine treating the situation with medication after listening to all of the facts.  He however told me that at anytime, if the elements presented themselves, he could bloat again.  Dr. Doan does not like the odds of Chaps ever having this type of surgery and I had already come to that conclusion before we even heard that from him.  It was nice to hear his take on it and to be in agreement.

So, there you have it.  One day The Mayor is up on the hill loving life and next…he is in the ER.

More roller coaster rides later…hopefully, the ones going up hill…Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB keeping the Mayor safe.

 

 

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