Sadie Is 8 Years Old Today

Sadie turns 8 years old today and still acts like a puppy in someways. You can read here a lot about her first 7 years, so today I'll just write about this past year. She is living proof not to give up on hounds when they are puppies and destructive, no matter what you try.

She also had separation anxiety up until the age of 5 years old. At that time I was working and gone around ten hours per day from the time I drove to work and returned home. She would spend those times in the biggest indoor heavy wire kennel you could buy. It wasn't much taller than she was but it was long enough for her to turn around. The teeth that she has lost or are damaged today is from her attempts of chewing her way out of that steel rod kennel.

When I would relay the stories of her destruction as she was growing up (many were funny) to co-workers, ALL of them suggested I get rid of her. ALL of them suggested she was a nut case ... she wasn't, she was just a bloodhound, a breed that is somewhat obnoxious when they are young.

So I turned down those opinions, and even the one person that wanted her, because I never give my hounds away no matter what. As she grew older she turned into a great house dog that has the run of the house.

She still loves to roam the field, taught as a 12 week old puppy by Winston. He showed her where all the good spots were in the field and could tell she had tracking tendencies.

Even with fewer teeth, she still likes to chew on an occasional stick. Where she use to use just her small front teeth, now she will try to get the stick further back in her jaw.

Last August I decided to get a 2nd bloodhound, more to help Stella have a permanent home and not really realizing just how much she would change Sadie's life for the better. That first night Sadie wasn't real excited about her new companion ... she had always been the "leader of the pack" ... still is.

After spending all of her 7 years with short legged basset hounds while following The Bloodhound Property Laws, she now had a hound almost as big as she was, just as strong and also followed those same Bloodhound Property Laws.

Her life was about to change ... as it turns out it was for the better.

Stella had Sadie running more and playing like she was a puppy again. It reminded me of the time Sadie was a puppy and was tormenting Winston with her abundance of puppy energy.

Sadie shared her water, gave Stella the chance to choose what bones and balls she wanted but still kept her bed and daily meals off limits. I bought this dog bed the day I picked up Heidi and for Heidi ... but Sadie took over the bed and Heidi decided my bed was a better place to sleep anyway.

She still likes a game of fetch, inside on bad weather days or outside. Once she is playing that game it is all she focuses on, even when Stella tries to get her to play.

Stella has also taught Sadie how to lay down and relax, enjoy the sunshine, and the yard without having to explore and track stuff all the time.

Of course after the week camping trip to Colorado and Utah last June, Sadie has liked riding in the FJ. She and Stella make all the local trips around town as long as I am not going for groceries and the temps are below 80° if I am stopping somewhere. If we are just out driving with no stops, then she rides with the air conditioning on.

Last December the morning that Winston hurt his back and couldn't walk, it was the first time I could ever remember that Sadie got up on my bed. Being the "leader of the pack" she knew something was wrong with him ... She showed concern for him the next few weeks.

The morning I came back without Winston ... Sadie knew her good friend was gone. Winston was the basset hound she chased as a puppy, played with him as a puppy and would sleep with him when it was cold outside.

She could tell what happened to Winston.

She continues to roam the field, run in the backyard just like Winston taught her as a puppy. She still gets so excited for her daily walks and her meals that she hops up and down on her back legs when the word food is mentioned. She always grabs my hand with her mouth as we start the daily walk ... every time.

She is still 'the leader of the pack'

Deep in thought about what she will be doing in year 9 ... never a dull moment in her life in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Winston Having A Great Monday So Far

I decided Sunday while Winston slept in the afternoon that if I was going to be able to keep up with him not knowing how long this might take ... along with taking care of my other hounds ... then I was going to have to remain healthy. I was going to have to take time to buy good food like I had been but more importantly I was going to have to have good quality sleep.

Even with my reputation of being able to sleep anywhere with any amount of noise around, I need to sleep in bed instead of my floor next to him. So to do that I need to wake up Winston when I go to bed and move him to the bed I had made in the corner of my closet with the same square feet as the area he lays on in the living room. I'll have to gate that at night so he doesn't wander off, plus eliminate the chance of one of the bloodhounds accidentally stepping on him if they hear him moving.

Or, I would have to move him there earlier in the evening before he settled down to sleep. He doesn't want that from what I saw and heard a few days ago after sitting up the closet floor area. He likes being with everyone and he should be out with us even when he is sleeping. So, I woke him up last night and he was back to sleep about two minutes after I sat him down in the closet area. I was able to sleep solid until I heard him moving around at the new normal time of 3:06 am.

He waited while I put my jeans and shoes on. He waited until I went and opened the storm door. He waited until I put the taped rolled t-shirt under him ... and then, he went charging off wagging his tail, walking on his two front feet with me keeping his back legs off the ground ... barely able to keep up with his pace. Luckily for him and me, in this time of continuous rain, he as been going straight out into the gravel driveway and dumping his tanks pretty quickly.

So I sit here in the middle of the night, wide awake as he is back to sleep under my sleeping bag at the corner of the living room. Is it coffee time or do I go back and try to get some sleep? At 4:27 am, I am beginning  to think it's time to make coffee and start the day.

After 7:30 pm last night Winston started getting pretty feisty. He was starting to be his old self so to speak. When I say the word "walking", I mean until further notice, walking while dragging his back two legs unless I have the t-shirt under him to lift his hips.

Well last night after a good afternoon of sleep, and obviously feeling better, that he would start walking anywhere he wanted around the house. After the first attempt to move to the bloodhound's bowl of water I moved him back and gave him water. It wasn't 5 minutes later he took off toward the living room.

I moved him back to his blanketed area and explained to him the importance of keeping still. I put the barricades and the baby gate back up. I thought he was about to go back to sleep when I hear the baby gate being knocked over and he was trying to get out. Stella decided to come over and lay on the opposite side of him, with the wall and her on each side of Winston ... maybe she thought she could keep him from walking off.

I think Winston is feeling better.

Yesterday my Britta Filter Pitchers were on overdrive. Stella has decided to make it a "drinking game" and she is consuming water just as fast as Winston is, although in much larger quantities. Winston has his excuse of "but I'm on Prednisone" while Stella is just Stella. With that large consumption of water, Winston peed more than I could ever imagine yesterday. Sometimes it was 2-3 times in an hour, with him letting me know he needed to go out.

Toward the end of the day he just started peeing on his blankets with the 6mil plastic sheet between the blankets and the carpet. He had not done that since he was a 8 week old puppy. He seemed not only a little confused about it but he looked and acted embarrassed. He would try hiding it by licking the blankets dry. Here he attempted to hid around the corner from me.

A little embarrassed

Finally decides it's okay and lays on the clean dry blankets

After reassuring him it was okay, the wet blankets were pulled up and thrown into the wash machine and a new set of dry clean blankets were laid down. Today is his last day of Prednisone being given twice per day, so I am hoping as the doses decrease that his water consumption decreases also.

As a side note to this, I looked at the times on my spreadsheet for the times he peed and really they were about his normal frequency, except for just a couple of hours. Before he was hurt he always went to the door for me to let him out anytime after he woke up from his many naps. This time seemed like more since I have had to help him walk outside and then carry him back inside.

I saw a little reflexive motion last night as I rubbed and massaged his right rear hip. His rear leg flexed a little more than Sunday morning but not without help and not anywhere near a full range of motion. He will lay on his left rear leg when sitting and when he is sleeping. He never sleeps with his rear legs stretched out behind him. Although he will drag his legs like that in the yard when looking for his 'spot' to pee.

One more day of rain today. There will be colder temperatures but sunshine starting on Tuesday ... I'll take that over rainy days any day of the week.

The other dogs are holding up during all this chaos. Of course Winston is receiving the most attention but I am keeping the routines pretty much the same for the other hounds. They know something is up and not right with Winston, so they move fairly quiet around him but are curious about what is going on with him.

About the time I decided to fix coffee, a little after 7:30 am, I decided sleeping was better. I threw my sleeping bag down on the floor next to Winston and we slept until 10:15. I did catch him a few times kind of rolling on his left side next to me to sleep and not just sleeping on his stomach all the time. When I opened my eyes he was sitting straight and staring at me with the "I want water" look. After a trip outside where he wagged his tail while walking to the door, we were both back to sleep until 11:35am.

The next time was a little different when waking up. Stella had decided to take over nursing duties and was laying right next to Winston but across the bottom of my legs - I couldn't move until she did.

So to say the least, it's been a quiet morning of recovery for him. He has peed on schedule, all outside. He had a great breakfast with a couple of tablets of Prednisone added to his kibble and has had all the water he has wanted. He has been sleeping while I've been wondering around the house, outside with the bloodhounds and on the computer editing photos. Once he wakes up I'll take him outside then came back inside for lunch, although Stella has been begging to eat since I got up.

We have about other hour before the rains finally blow out of the area. Windchill is down to 30° but I'll take that instead of pouring rain. Sadie and Stella have not stayed out long and did nothing more than this photo. Heidi ran outside for a 'pit stop" but was back inside before I could turn and grab my camera. She has been joining Stella today in the fight to have lunch, their last meal of the day, to be served at earlier time. By that I mean she barks while Stella howls.

Sorry that this is all there is to blog about now, but currently it is the life with the hounds in the tropics of Southern Indiana.

A Quiet Sunday Morning For The Hounds

I guess blogging has become my relief. I have been blogging more than ever this past week. I don't have a desire to read, nor watch ballgames, movies and anything else. So these blog posts may continue to be more than once a day with photos.

Sometime around 11pm Saturday night I rolled out my Thermarest pad, sleeping bag, a pillow next to Winston's blanket area as I had done the past few nights. Every night he had been sleeping for hours by the time I felt like sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up but wanted to be able to hear when he woke up needing water or to go outside.

It was different though last night. Pad or no pad I could tell the floor had not been kind to my aching bones as I slowly laid down on the Thermarest Pad. The bluejeans rivets are not the best things to sleep on. Yet, I have to be able to go at a moments notice when I wake up in the middle of the night with Winston. About the time I caught myself complaining I just thought of Winston's situation ... case closed. I still loved the thought of sleeping in bed though as I dosed off on the floor.

Around 1:09am I had the wake up call. I never know what makes me wake up when I do. Winston never yells or cries in pain. I just wake up and he is sitting up staring at me. That means he wants 1 of 2 things or both ... water ... go outside. In the past week he has decided to lick his lips over and over ... I take that as "give me water ... a lot of water".

As soon as I came to my senses, I hear it raining so hard that it is pounding the roof. I clicked my phone for a time .. 1:09am. I remember how there was so much water the night before when he tried to go outside. I was tired, it was early and it was raining .. My thought process as I tried to wake up was ... I'll give him water but there was no way I was going outside just for him to stand there looking for a spot that he could not get to while it poured rain.

Field is just starting to flood, it will get worse pretty fast

I was hoping he would break his "house rules" of almost 12 years and pee inside. I was prepared for that and on weather days like this I hope he would. I had placed a sheet of 6mil plastic under his first blanket to protect my old and worn carpet. I have plenty of blankets to rotate clean ones when needed.

He wouldn't go.

Slipping the t-shirt under him, we head for the door that is still closed. He was walking and wagging his tail as we moved forward. I stopped him at the door, hurry to get the storm door propped up using the slider mechanism ... it is raining so hard I can barely see my fence only 32' away. As usual, when it's raining during his healthy days ... he heads right, around the parked Mini Cooper to the front area of mulch, under the overhang and pees. I don't know who was happier, me or him ... even at a little past 1am.

I decided I wanted to sleep in bed not on the floor when we came back inside. After packing 'his' sleeping bag, a small garbage bag to lay under the sleeping bag for 'just in case' on the bed ... I was asleep in less than 10 seconds after hitting the pillow.

When the hounds woke up around 7:09am, I felt great after almost 6 hours of solid sleep ... on a mattress. It was great! I'm good for another week.

Winston waited for me to get my shoes on, turn on the lights, let the hounds file out to the yard and help him down off the bed to start the walk to the yard. He made it all the way through the house, down two steps and out to the yard non-stop. Since he knew it wasn't raining, he made the left turn around the parked FJ and headed for the yard. He didn't take time to look for a spot ... he peed as soon as he felt grass.

Food, water and meds were fed and ingested without hesitation and then he packed it in for a morning nap under his sleeping bag. I can tell the Pedrisone is making him more thirsty and that leads to more peeing.

Sadie and Stella have picked up on the new routine. Everything is the same for them except the excitement and playtime after they eat. They use to do a little easy-going wrestling inside .. but some how they know something is wrong with Winston and if he is sleeping ... they are sleeping.

Eventually Stella will start chewing on her array of favorite bones ... Sadie will sit and look at Winston as the 'nurse in charge'. Heidi???  Normal routine for her ... sleep ... sleep ... sleep.

Sadie is really concerned ... sad, about the situation and has been since the start 

Winston seems to be in good spirits this morning but he is peeing more than he has the past week. I wonder if the Pedrisone has really kicked in. More thirsty is a side effect, which leads to more water drinking and it has to come out sometime. With another 24 hours of rain forecasted, I have brought out the Columbia hooded rain jacket and we will stand outside as long as Winston wants ... unless it's a downpour.

He does perk up when I ask him if he want's to go outside. You'll notice his right rear leg is straight out. It will not bend and I've noticed during my massages it has not bent in the past few days. It will flex at his ankle. Hard to tell with legs that short but its right above his paw.

At halfway through the day, Winston has been pretty restless this morning. He can't sleep. Sleeping bag on and off. Outside trips and then nothing. I wonder if the laser treatment has activated some bladder issues and restlessness.

As you can tell we've had a lot of rain in the past 18 hours.

With a lite dropping of rain, Winston snooped around for a spot and eventually peed quite a bit as I held his hips higher to give him enough clearance. Ground clearance is a tough objective if you are a basset hound.

Stella is timid around Winston, somewhat cautious and a little confused. She wants to touch noses with Winston but has a slight fear to be close to him. Sadie was in the searching mode but sprinted back to the house as soon as I picked up Winston to return inside.

At least it's still warm at 49° this morning. I think I would trade high 40's and rain for sunny and mid 30's here in the tropics of southern Indiana. That will be happening in a few days.

As I post this Winston has been sleeping soundly for the past hour.