The Hounds & Dog ESCAPE --- Gone !!!

Taking this photo and the next one of Henry this morning while standing in the great room, little did I know what would bring a HUGE adrenaline rush to me today. It was my fault as I had a total mental failure that led to their escape. Instead of going out of the fence gate to mow the grass I took the lawn mower from the shed, through a single door into the garage and out the opened garage door. While I mowed, due to the high temps the hounds and the dog were basking in their cooled AC rooms.

Checking Off Tasks Continues

I think I left you last post with Walter supervising my house maintenance. It was another week of that with some added features. It finally got hot, upper 80s, humid to where Stella was panting like the old days. Then it rained right after I mowed the yard as planned. There has not been a lot of rain during the day but I have seen more rain the month I have been here than I did the past year in Sierra Vista AZ. No photos to prove it but my septic tank was pumped clean last week. He said the tank itself was in great shape and that was good to hear since it is 62 years old. The hounds and the dog continue to adjust to their new home, neighborhood with less barking, more relaxing and still getting pets each time they are seen outside.

Walter Had Quite A Saturday

  

Well I am leaving things as Blogger puts them. Photos will be out of order, the top one will not be aligned because Blogger put it there when I inserted the cursor there to start the paragraph. {At the end of this post as I was proof reading, I tried to center the photo like I did when I started and IT WORKED !!!} I am tired of screwing with blogger and this post will let you see what happens when I don't wait to post later or try to work around blogger. Lets see what happens when I hit the return key to start another paragraph, remembering nothing will be changed.

Well my view when to the bottom of the screen but my cursor was still up here aligned correctly. Yesterday I was reading a blog that is on the sidebar, that is a Wordpress blog. I lost count at 40 some photos and there were many more after that. I wonder how that loads on a phone or a tablet? Slow ... so this post is going to contain all the photos that I would like to post, if I didn't eliminate some just to get below 25 photos.

This time after hitting the return key, my view was back on the bottom of the page but my cursor was moved up to the top of the first photo ... strange. What I was wanting to say LET ME KNOW IF THIS POST LOADS SLOW ON YOUR TABLET OR PHONE due to the large number of photos ... Thanks.

 

The morning started at 5am again and Henry was ready to eat, the only problem was to find a place to put his bowl that he liked and that kept the other dogs from stealing his food when they were finished. It all worked out and just after their rest period, Stella was sleeping, Heidi was in a corner sleeping with Walter and Henry in a full fledged wrestling match. Remember these photos are backwards to what I am describing. {I am also not going to correct the spacing between paragraph and photos because Blogger will not let me}

This was the start to the day ... sunny all day ... but you will see by late afternoon to early evening the rains come hard and finished quick. At the time I was writing this all the windows were open with the 74° breeze filling the house. If you scroll up from this photo of the mountains, that is the order for the morning. After this I will load the photos that I am talking about, a few at a time.

Walter had quite a day today, lets see if I can remember everything he did. He is a true comedian and is big, strong with a 7 month old birthday this coming Tuesday on the 1st. I needed to head out to buy some dog food. Stella goes into the crate all the time. Backyard? Not unless I want a crater dug into the rock yard and Arizona concrete dirt. I thought I'd let Walter run the house since it was going to be a short trip. And Henry would get the master bathroom again only contained by the wood baby gate, that Walter tore down months ago when I tried keeping him in there. 

The short trip turned into a long trip because about the time I arrived at Tractor Supply for dog food I realized my mask was not in the truck. I can't find my package of 10 of them somewhere in the house. One mask had it's string break so I have been rotating some masks between vehicles. So the short 15 minute trip turned into about an hour with Saturday town traffic plus a run to Pet Smart along the way to check on a different brand of food ... that they did not have.

I was met at the front door when I walked in ... by none other than Henry. You remember, the puppy contained in the master bedroom with the wood baby gate? This could be interesting but luckily I always close the doors to the bike room and the computer room. Walter came running around the corner, panting heavily not because he was running but because he had been really busy while I was gone. He is the one that chewed the crossbar to the gate trying to get a good grip with those front teeth of his ... to pull the baby gate out of the entry way to the bathroom!!! He broke Henry free.  LOL

As I unloaded the truck of two large bags of dog food, Stella headed for the cool tile and Walter decided to block any movement out of the patio door. He was pretty proud of the "jail breakout", prancing around the house in that bulldog trot of his. Henry didn't take long to show me that he is a true house dog after only three days here.

He moved over to one of his favorite places to sleep, tucked his nose under the couch and acted like nothing had happened. He was tired because he and Walter had no doubt played the whole time I was gone once he was out of captivity. Stella decided that wasn't a bad idea and took up her position she holds at night. Henry has really been good with his housebreaking because Michelle, the breeder at Out West Bassets did a very good job training the 10 pup litter to go outside when they need to. Henry has various places he likes to sleep and none of those are in confinement.

Right after I did some vacuuming they all chose new spots for their afternoon naps. It wasn't lunch time yet and besides I had Fry's Market delivering my groceries today because I was a little lazy, it's safer during these times because I knew on Saturday the place would be packed. While I sent text back and forth with my shopper on what to substitute, the hounds slept and moved a little from one position to another.

This was about the time that Walter became famous ... no photos of the event because I was too busying trying to rescue two books sitting end table that had been flooded by ice cold water and ice cubes. Those came from the 24 ounce glass that was tipped over because I was gone ... and when I step away if food is involved or it might be food ... Walter will stand and check to see if there is anything to eat or drink.

Since he has no nose he has to press his whole face against whatever he is investigating, thus ... the glass full of ice water was tipped over and running down over the back of the table luckily on tile instead of carpet.  He knew he was in trouble when he heard the high pitched yell coming from the kitchen and ran as fast as he could down the slick hallway toward the bedroom. In fact by the time I got back there ... he was sitting inside his small crate that he hates to be left in. I honestly couldn't help but laugh when I found him.

{These next 20 photos may end up backwards like the first 15 ... those that look right with commentary were loaded a few at a time. I want to see what happens with this batch of photos.} Wow, they loaded correctly !!!!!

 

With the Indy Car race over in Iowa, the Reds leaving bases loaded with no outs and no runs (tv turned off) and a needed siesta after all of today's excitement, we woke up to this a few hours later. Behind me as I take these photos looking toward the south are blue skies, puffy white clouds and sunshine ... yes sunshine. I knew it was going to storm soon with the sound of thunder as did the hounds.  I am including Walter as a "hound" although we know he is a "dog". 

 

They all decided they needed to come out and see what all the noise was about plus enjoy the cooler winds. None of them fear the sound of thunder or the storms, which is great because Stella showed up at the house five years ago today with storm anxiety along with separation anxiety. I fixed the storm anxiety but have not been able to fix the separation anxiety.

 

Henry decided today that he would focus on biting tails and ankles of Stella and Heidi ... neither of them stay long enough for him to connect most of the time. I hear the occasional yelp at times. But Walter having a great day today decided he would help Henry reach the jowls of Stella. Photos below of that gymnastics maneuver. Walter was on a roll today.

 Where was Heidi through all this excitement ... where sane dogs stay ... in bed.

 

The zoomed photos were taken with my Nikon D3500 with the old beat up Tamron 18-200mm lens. All others were with the iPhone. None of the photos were edited. What about the rain ??? Oh it showed up, a downpour, flooding yards and was gone just like that. A normal Arizona rain this time of year.

Sorry for the poor photo, hopefully you can see the rain pouring off the tile roof. As I finish this the house is completely dark, baseball game on tv in the background. Otherwise everything is quiet ... too quiet. When you have puppies that usually means they are into some kind of trouble. When you have a new puppy that thinks he is meant to be a true house dog ... you find him here .... in the dark ... the camera flash worked too well.

In the 33 years I have had basset hounds and bloodhounds or even the trouble maker of the day Walter ... Henry is off to a great start for being a full-time house dog. Michelle's training in weeks 2-7 plays a big part of his development. He loves the camera and getting his photo taken. He loves belly rubs. He does not mind his feet being handled which will be perfect when trimming nails. He isn't afraid of the size of the Stella or Heidi or that overweight bulldog Walter. It is like he has always lived here after only 3 days and he is only 8 weeks old today in fact ... it's his 2 month old birthday.

Well the spilled water has been cleaned up hours ago, the chewed wood residue from the gate vacuumed up hours ago. Walter and Henry have played all day to the point of exhaustion. All four are in a deep sleep at 7:26pm and will not wake up unless I wake them to go outside before I go to bed.

A very fine day here in the Wild West.