Is It Spring Yet ???

That's the question Walter is asking, "is it spring yet'. All signs are there. 69° just a couple of days ago before he had an inch of rain, flooding the backyard again. Temps are to be warm again the next few days. Plus he spent some time this past week sleeping in the hot sun on the patio deck. He is just curious. He did go outside first thing Thursday morning after hit has rained all night. He even slide outside between rains later in the day. He was feeling pretty good after he had a fresh bowl of water without any hound drool floating around in it. He hates that and refuse to drink until he gets a clean bowl.

When I saw the robins in the trees I too wondered if spring was here or around the corner. I have lived in Indiana long enough, many years, the weather can change in a heartbeat and it still can this year. Well with cold windy rain most of the morning I spent some time putting a page at the top of the blog for Samson. I have one for all the other hounds I have had. Granted, he was only here for 10 days but it felt like he was here as long as Watson. His first owner and I have talked a lot, about the good time he gave each of us.

I could tell by the lines of dead grass or mulched grass or whatever that stuff is, that one time last night the water in the backyard was deep enough to have ripples created by the wind. I did not get out into the yard yesterday to see how saturated it was. I was more like Walter and only went out on the deck a few times.

Both Henry and Watson really don't care what the weather is. They like to go out when they want to and even if it is raining they will stay outside sometimes until they hear me bribing them with a bone treat.

They spent some quality time outside later Thursday afternoon. There wasn't any playing, no fetching the whiffle ball, no running chasing each other ... just out to explore the yard and check out the neighborhood.

You can tell that Watson doesn't care about the weather, hot or cold, snow or rain ... as he stands in a mud puddle looking at something that I have no idea what it was. 

This is the first time I have seen this pose. I was calling him, trying to convince him to come back inside but he may have been waiting for my food bribe, not sure. Interesting and funny.

Nothing phases this basset hound. He cruises through each day like he is on vacation. Calls all the shots. If ever he is called, he will always wait at least 30 seconds before he responds. He has always been that way. He will be three years old in June. 

I read more Thursday about rage syndrome for dogs. It is odd that I have never heard of it until this week after having hounds since 1987. Then again, I've never had a hound attack me. I have had to break up some fights over a bone occasionally in those 36 years but no one was as vicious as what I witnessed on Saturday.

I know I probably shouldn't have ... but I called animal control Thursday to see how Samson was doing. All I was told "he is doing okay and showing no signs of distress". Yet they are not able to walk him, not able to let him outside because he is in quarantine. They cannot get close to him.

I was thinking today what would have happened if I had not called animal control Saturday night. Just past it off as a rare occurrence that might not happen again (I doubted that) and kept him here like nothing happened. He would have still ended up in quarantine for ten days and here is why.

I ended up needing to go to urgent care on Wednesday and I am glad I did. My right hand stayed the same size as the left hand all day Thursday and into late Thursday night. The first question they asked me as they gathered information for their charts ... Did you report the dog bite to the animal control ?? If I had not, the urgent care people would have and animal control would've had to pick up the hound at my house to quarantine him for 10 days. So with the condition of my hand, it was almost guaranteed he was going to be put in quarantine, no matter what.

In a different situation would he have attacked the control officers while in the dog crate in the garage? That is hard to say since my urgent care visit didn't happen until four days after the attack. Basically it's a sad situation for all involved. All three of us owners have seconded guessed our decisions. Yet each one of us made a decision based on the information we had at the time. We all agree though, he needs to be put down.

I found out that 'extreme dominate aggression' seemed to grow as Samson got older, instead of staying the same or decreasing after he was neutered. I have seen that kind of aggression in Watson when he was about 5-6 months old. He went after Henry even as a puppy. It was bad enough that I called the breeder to ask him what was wrong with his puppy. He claimed I needed to show him that I was the "alpha". In the last 16 months I have only seen that happen one more time just a couple of months ago. Yet it was more of a "dominance" thing and not an "attack" thing.

With what I have been told and what I have read about this rage syndrome I am wondering if it is hidden inside Watson only to release later before that 3 year mark? I have been told by others, it can happen even when they are older. Yet it very rare to have it.

I am feeling better about everything, with help of some blog readers, and some friends that have sent emails and texts. Some ended up injured a lot worse than me. Different breeds, different ages. I must admit I am cautious now when I approach or am near Watson when he is sleeping, or if I walk into a dark room where he is sleeping and I turn on the lights. Henry and Walter, not really. They are dead to the world when they sleep and don't care. 

Once my hand is completely healed I will be cleaning doors and walls. I have missed the scheduled time and yes, I could use my left hand but I don't want to take any chances of getting my right infected with all the bacteria I would be cleaning up.  

I am publishing this post now because if I wait to take a day's worth of photos and write about them, that post would be just too long.

It's going to be a good day here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana ... no more rain means hound walks.