Henry Longfellow

Born 3/1/2011

It was the weekend after Gerdie passed away and the dog show was in Duluth.  I usually go to see all the basset folks and help out as much as I can, so I figured what better way to cheer me up than to see everyone and snuggle some gorgeous hounds.  So off I went with my friend Annie on Saturday.  Once out of the ring we were all talking and they told me I needed to come back to Bayfield to see Nancy’s (Rabbit Run Bassets) new puppies.  I called Alex and he agreed we could drive over there Sunday after the show!!   I could smell the puppy breath already!!!

Sunday, I went to the show…of course bassets showed at 8am like usual…then we followed Sue, Nancy, Chuck, Becky and their friend back to Bayfield.  After a quick change of clothes we sat in a pen with lot of squirming little basset pups.  Once I could no longer feel my legs we decided to let the pups sleep and we would go hang out outside with the other hounds and hound folk.  It this is where Henry entered the picture.

This cute little hounds comes hobbling over to me to say hi!  It was true love at first site, I mean how could you not love that face?!  Nancy told us the story about how he probably got stepped on as a new born and had a leg injury so needed to find a home for him.

Guess who followed me around and sat in my lap giving me kisses all afternoon?!

Yup, that was Henry!

Alex told me it was time to go and I just kept giving Henry kisses and telling him I would see him again.  Nancy and Sue of course wanted me to try putting him in the car to see if Alex would say anything.  I knew he would not and couldn’t do that to him.  I decided that if it was meant to be it would all work out in the end.  Plus I was worried I was just letting the emotions of loosing Gerdie earlier that week get the best of me.

So we slept on it…

Well, we couldn’t stop thinking about the boy and called over to Sue’s place by 9am to see Nancy was still there.  She was and said that they wouldn’t be leaving until later in the afternoon.

So, we packed up the truck and drove back over to get our boy!  He was becoming a member of the Jokela pack, aka the special needs hounds house!

He is the sweetest, smoothest, friendliest, cutest (ok, all hounds are cute) basset boy that we ever could have wished for.  I know Gerdie had her paw in us crossing paths and Henry has placed a patch on the huge hole that loosing Gerdie left in my heart.  Oh yeah, he has huge muffin paws like Gerdie did, too!

Can’t wait to have many years with Henry Longfellow…we will have a blast!