#6 & #7, The Big, Beautiful Bloodhounds

Jay got one of his crazy ideas and decided we needed to rescue this Bloodhound from a coworker.  He was stuck in a pen all day and they no longer had the time or desire to take him on walks or give him attention.  I was not at all in favor of this decision.  As I've mentioned before, I am a Lab-only-type-of-gal, but we went to meet #6, Buster the Bloodhound.

Buster the Bloodhound was this big, beautiful "red" Bloodhound.  He was about five years old and terribly overweight, but mainly because he didn't get any exercise outside of this fenced-in area so that wasn't entirely his fault.  We knew immediately he was coming home with us.  He was such a sweetie.  He was so laid back and gentle.  He was that Bloodhound you see in a movie that just sits in the old beat-up truck and looks pitiful...totally Buster.  I would leave for work at 7am and he would be lying in his corner of the living room.  When we got home around 5pm, he would still be lying in that very same spot.  He was an awesome, gentle giant.

One Saturday morning, Jay came home from working nights and I let Buster out to use the bathroom.  This was not abnormal...except Buster didn't come back.  We yelled and yelled for him, nothing.  We drove around and searched for him.  We talked to our neighbors.  I called the radio station, etc.  We could not find him.  One of our neighbors on the next block south of us said he saw what was probably Buster heading south through the woods.  We never saw him again.  We really think he is living with a family just north of Robinson because they now have a big, beautiful Bloodhound...we waited too long though to confront them so we let it go.

And along came #7.  We had had such great luck with #6 Buster, that when Jay saw an ad in the Terre Haute paper for a free Bloodhound to a good home, etc, he jumped all over it.  Now, here's the story:  This cute little family is moving to Arizona and they don't feel like their dog would do well in that climate.  Translation:  This cute little family is probably staying put and they don't feel like Bificus is doing well in their climate.  (Yes, I said Bificus, unfortunately, that was his name.)  But there was no turning back, we missed Buster so much and here was this big beautiful, Bloodhound PUPPY with lots of energy staring at us.  Wow.  Did I mention how much energy he had?  In the paperwork these people gave us, there was a receipt from a pet store...they had paid like $1400 for this dog on a credit card :( and they gave him to us.  Does that cause or alarm anyone else besides me?

Bificus was also a big, beautiful Bloodhound and very similar in appearance to Buster.  From the start, he didn't take well to my parent's chocolate lab, Cooper.  On one of our very first walks together, Cooper and Bificus got into it.  I had Bificus leashed at the time.  In hindsight, that wasn't a good idea.  I ended up being drug through corn stalks and skinned up my legs. Apparently the skin on a Bloodhound is very thin, and as most know, the teeth on a Labrador are very sharp.  This combination equalled a visit to the vet for stitches and antibiotic.  Seriously we had had this dog for about 48 hours.

Cooper and Bificus never did become friends.  They hated each other after that and were always getting into it.  But then there was the incident with my parents...Jay, the kids and I were packed up and ready to head to Gatlinburg for vacation, we were literally getting in the car when my dad pulled up on his Mule (ATV) with Biff in the back...He was driving near our driveway with Cooper in the seat next to him, when Biff appeared and a fight ensued and my dad ran over Biff's leg and broke it to pieces.  It was literally dangling about.

We were already packed and loaded, had reservations, etc., so my dad said he would take care of everything with Biff.  My mom ended up drawing the short straw and drove Biff to the vet.  A repair, a week at the spa (vet's), a cast and several weeks of R&R and Biff was all healed up.  Unfortunately, for my parents, Biff did not forget the crazy man who mangled his leg nor the ambulance driver...which created problems.  Finally, we decided it was time for Biff to go and we found him a home.  It was very sad to give him away; however, it was ridiculous the amount of stress he caused everyone because of his distaste for my parents and their dog.(If I'd known that just a bit later I was going to run over their dog and kill it, accidentally of course, maybe things would've been different.) 

And that is the story of our big, beautiful Bloodhounds.