7 short years
by neilsmeyer ·
It’s almost 7 years since we picked up Samson & Delilah from their home in Wales. We found them after a long and winding drive that made us question the sanity and accuracy of our Satnav (a fairly new purchase at the time). Leading up to the farm we passed a Lama… before being greeted by a wonderfully friendly lady who showed us to the litter of 5 puppies. Laura immediately picked out the little boy – who we’d later name Samson – and handed him to me. He was a sweet little guy with a deep engaging look in his eyes. She struggled between picking from the small runt of the litter and a cute, playful girl. We finally agreed on the girl – Delilah.
The drive home was easy enough, with a short stop at a petrol station where we let them out to have a walk and ‘go out’. This was the first time we had people flock over to see them, the first of many such events since then. The basset hound is very good for drawing a crowd, and basset puppies even more so.
Once we got home - after about 4.5 hours on the road, we took them out to the back garden to stretch and get to know their new home. They were tiny and seemed almost lost in the long grass. They both had good appetites, although both also seemed to have bloated little bellies after eating. A few days later we took them for their first check up and they had worms - not unusual for small puppies raised on a farm. A couple of weeks after that they were given the all clear.
We were well and truly bitten by the basset-bug and have since gone on to foster three other bassets and looked after about dozen more.
We'll cover off much of our experience and enjoyment of bassets on this site, but be warned: Bassets are addictive! They'll find their way into your heart and cause it uncontrolled swelling - a very pleasant feeling all in all.
