Happy Birthday, Toad!

Toad is our basset hound. We do not know when his birthday is, the Princess just picked today, for whatever reason that she like February 2nd. We don't even know for sure how old the mutt is!

It is a long story as to how Toad ended up being a part of our family. The King's sister was driving home from work on some old, gravel, seldom used road. She saw a dog in the ditch, being a dog lover, she kept watching him. She thought it odd that a dog would be out there, in the middle of nowhere, and there weren't any vehicles around, either. As she got closer to the dog, she realized it wasn't walking right, so she stopped to see what was the matter with him. That's when she realized the basset hound had been duct taped up. His front paws were taped together and his hind paws were taped together. Kelly reached her hand out to him to see how the dog would respond, was he friendly or mean. He was all friendly and wanted her help. Toad had already chewed the tape apart on his front feet, but the tape was still stuck to him; and he was dragging his hind legs. Kel was able to get the tape off of him and took him to the closest police station and told them the condition she found him in and where she found him. After she got home that night, I just happened to call her to chit chat. She told me about the dog. How sad is that? Who could do that to a dog? I will not repeat (or type) the names Kelly called the guilty one. After Kel and I's conversation, I told the rest of the family about what Aunt Kel found on her way home from work. That was mistake #1! After a couple of days of thinking about what this poor hound dogger had been through, I called the police department to see how the dog was doing that had been brought in. Whoever I talked to said the dog seemed to be doing quite well, and they were going to be turning it over to the humane society in a few days. By now the Trucker and the Princess were quite sure we should give this dog a much better home than what it had. Mistake #2, I called the humane society! They raved about how nice the dog was, and how he was doing well. That was the end of it for us! We had to wait two weeks for tests to be run on the dog and he would be available for adoption on a Saturday morning in June. Here comes Mistake #3, that Saturday morning, the King, Princess and I took a ride to the humane society to see the poor basset hound. The Princess did not know what she thought of him at first, she thought he was ugly, his head was to big and you could see his ribs. I had to agree with her, he wasn't the most handsome dog I had ever seen. I don't know as if I have ever seen a handsome basset hound, though, either! When people tell you looks don't matter, it's all about the personality, that is true. The humane society people let us go into a small room with the dog to see how he acted. He had a personality that grabbed you right away! He was so curious and wanted to play. And of course who could resist those big, droopy eyes and those long ears! Needless to say, when we left we were $85.00 poorer, but had a new dog. The paper work said he was one or two years old, after a few days of having him in our home, we think he was closer to the one year mark. Quite an active thing he was! He has given us many laughs over the last months! He has given us many annoying times over the last few months. Maybe I should say he has annoyed me over the last few months, the rest of the fam finds it all quite humorous. I like a dog that obeys immediately when I talk to him or her. Toad listens immediately, but he obeys when he is good and ready to. I like a dog that lays on the floor, Toad thinks he has just as much of a right to the couch and bed as I do! I must confess, I have told Toad more than once that if he doesn't watch it, he might get re-acquainted with the duct tape. Joke, joke! Ha!Ha! As irritating as he can be at times, I could never do some thing like that to any animal.

You will hear more Toad stories over the blogs. In the length of time that it took me to type this, I have chased him off the couch twice! The King says Toad has no feelings in his hind quarters, you can swat him pretty good to get him off the couch, but as soon as you leave the room, guess where he is again.

I was going to post a picture for you, but the pics are on the Princess's camera. Hopefully tomorrow I can have a picture for you. I am sure you will all think he is the cutest thing you have ever seen. In another year, all of you will be the proud new owner of a basset hound!