Daphneyland Basset Hound Rescue Voluteer at Work

According to the AP, the recession and the economy is threatening the survival of the nation’s largest basset hound rescue group.

Donations to Daphneyland have never been so low, bills so overdue and the availability of volunteers been so low, according to Dawn Smith, Daphneyland’s owner and founder.

According to Smith the rescue group is bringing in about $5,200 month. They need $10,000 to survive, according to Smith.

Animal rescues and shelters have suffered, particularly in states hit hard by the real estate bust, such as California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

At Daphneyland, according the Smith, the mortgage is only a month and a half behind, so they are not in danger of foreclosure. The food and vet bills are always the first to be paid. The electric bill is about $1,500 a month. Because it takes a electricity to run the well, when the electrical goes out, so does the water.

On November 3, Smith’s bill was $7,500 past due and the utility turned off the power. After two hours on the phone, $3,000 and a payment plan, the electrical was restored.

Unless adoptions pick up, donations increase or grants become more easily available, Smith doesn’t know what they or other rescue groups are going to do.

Of course this goes back to a much bigger problem. Wouldn’t it be nice if more people were responsible pet owners and got the pets spayed or neutered? Then there would be no need for shelters and rescue groups. Pet overpopulation wouldn’t be a problem. But, that’s another blog for another time.

If you would like to contact Daphneyland to make a donation during this very critical time for Daphneyland, visit their website at http://www.daphneyland.com.

A link to this story from the AP is located at http://bit.ly/nwmtO

Remember the ABC-TV show Coach? Luther Van Dam (Jerry Van Dyke), assistant coach under head coach Hayden Fox, owned a basset hound named Quincy. Quincy’s job was to pretty much sit, do nothing and be pulled in a red wagon– because he was too lazy to walk. He was Coach Van Dam’s pride and joy!

Quincy’s real name was Issac, a veteran performer who appeared in a recurring roll in the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara and in several Purina dog food commercials.

Issac was owned and trained by Cheryl Shawver who reported that Issac “was chosen for the part because he was not pretty”. Issac died during production of the series and was replaced for a short period of time before he was written out of the show during a funeral episode.

I went out into the front yard and started calling Lilly’s name. Within 30 seconds, a teenage asked “Are you looking for your dog?” I replied yes and asked if she had seen a basset hound puppy. Right around the corner comes her friend carry Lilly in his arms. “My dog got hit by a car a few weeks ago. I didn’t want it to happen to this little one”.

I profusely thanked them for returning Lilly. The two teens had found her about a block away!  She was safe and sound, thank goodness!

My family and I have no idea how she escaped. We suspect that she ran out the front door when I came in the house from work. We are now in the process of getting her a dog tag on her collar. When she’s older we will look at implanting a chip.

Bottom line… a potential tragedy was avoided.

Take a look at the video below and you’ll know what I mean!

We called our veterinarian’s office and they instructed us to bring her in immediately. Our vet felt her stomach, drew blood and took her temperature. Everything was normal. Our vet suspected that she must have ate a bug or something and got a little nausea. He gave her a shot to help prevent the vomiting, sent us home and instructed us to monitor her the rest of the day. If the symptoms continued, we were to bring her in the next morning.

Good news! As soon as we got home, Lilly pepped up, went straight to her feeding bowl and pigged out! She was looking and feeling better and back to her usual silly self.

Now to get rid of some of those bugs in the backyard…

So far the house training has been fairly painless, I believe thanks in part to our current two dogs who are already house trained. Went it comes “potty” time, Macy and Nalla simply go out the pet door and do their thing. Lilly simply follows them out and does her thing as well. Kind of a “monkey see, monkey do” type learning environment.

Every morning we let the dogs out in our backyard to take care of their business. Again, Lilly simply follows Macy and Nalla outside and knows that it’s potty time. It seems to help to have other dogs who are more experienced in their “doody” be the puppy’s “mentor” and Lilly has two of them!

Of course there has been the occasional “accident” from time to time, but nothing to really fret about. As in any dog, house training a basset hound takes practice and patience.

However, with six year our dachshund, Macey, it’s a totally different matter. Macey is very shy and doesn’t want anything to do with her. Dachshunds by nature are very territorial and jealous. She reacted the same way we got Nala about a year ago, but now Nala and her get along just fine.

Our hope with this blog is to journal our experiences with our new bundle of joy. We are told basset hounds are very lovable dogs. This is our first one and we are looking forward to what we hope are many years together. We will be updating this blog every few days sharing with everyone our experiences with Lilly, both good and “challenging”. Please be sure to check back often.

Wayne the “Hound Owner”