Some Things Like Bassets are Meant to be - Part I - Our Princess Charleigh!

A blue-blooded princess - she was

My love affair with bassets started more than five years ago and is continuing. Basset hounds are beautiful dogs, also referred to as “hush puppies”. They have deep barks, low long bodies, silky long ears and those melting droopy eyes with the sweetest of temperaments. In short, they are addictive!

How it All Began
It all began when my son was in middle school and had to spend many hours alone till I came back from work. It gnawed at me persistently that he had no siblings so I thought, I should perhaps get him a dog. However,I hadn’t really made up my mind due to obvious reasons of a dog being a major responsibility. But life has a way of making some decisions for you. One day at work in fall 2002, I found a co-worker looking visibly upset in our common kitchen. Upon enquiring, I learned that she had four bassets and one of them was a real princess who was not getting along with the other girls. And this time, my friend had got hurt while breaking up a big dogfight leading to marital disharmony over the animal. To cut a long story short, the basset could not remain with them anymore and she didn’t know what to do. At once a light went off and I offered to have the basset over at my place over the upcoming long weekend. ONLY for the weekend, I repeatedly warned her as if fighting the inevitable...

Meeting of Hearts
Bottom line, my co-worker brought Charleigh over – a beautiful pure-bred black and white basset hound who normally greeted strangers with loud barks, but not us. She just flew into our arms and stayed there as if she belonged. It was déjà vu all around. She came to stay for the long weekend and never went back.

Straight into our arms she came.

Two Princesses!
Charleigh and I understood each other very well. She was fiesty, all loud bark with not a mean bone in her body–actually a wimp when faced with true confrontation with a never-ending desire to plonk herself on the nearest couch and go to sleep while desiring minimum exercise. You could be describing me. But she was truly my son, Baku’s, dog. He ruled and she had accepted him as a leader of the pack shadowing him everywhere and I mean everywhere.

Chuck before her debacle.

That Awful Summer Day
However Charliegh’s stay with us was full of drama. Bassets are very skittish and any sudden sound can set them off. One beautiful summer day in 2003, while Baku and I were relaxing upstairs in my room, something startled her and this queen of klutz ran down the stairs, lost her balance and hurt herself badly. We rushed her to the vet who had told us she had broken her back and surgery had to be performed instantly and that the surgery and the ensuing treatment could run in thousands of dollars. An immediate decision had to be made. Of course, we were going ahead. She was family.

Our Two-legged Wonder
However the painful reality, we were warned, was that she may still never walk again, even after the surgery. Needless to say, I did spend thousands from my limited resources without a second thought, only to find out after weeks of convalescence that forget walk, the poor dog could barely stand up. Those were long hard days when Baku and I literally nursed her around the clock. Finally with dogged perseverance on our parts (pun is definitely intended here) including Charleigh's of course, we worked non-stop with her till she was able to stand on her front legs. Soon like a seal, with unhampered spirit, she was running around our house on her two forelegs- her hind legs dragging behind her. Her hind legs just could not take her body weight yet. To be honest, she was becoming quite comfortable in her two-legged glory and I was beginning to panic that Darwin's theory of evolution was at work here or at least this is how it must have all started - the adaptation process. Anyway, at this point my own stubbornness came into play.

Wheels? NO Way!!!
Baku was after all a child, he did the needful for her, but it was left up to me to work on her physiotherapy as instructed by the vet. It was way beyond the six weeks by which she should have been walking when the vet gently tried to suggest that I get her doggie wheels since it really was not going to happen now. He had barely finished suggesting the horrific idea when I immediately vetoed it. I just would not accept that this beautiful young animal, only four years old would be using those awful wheels for the rest of her life. No way!

Dammit We Are Going to Do It!
Back home, I sat down and looked into those droopy yet intense eyes and literally had a firm woman to woman talk with Charleigh. I told her that I had spend my hard-earned son’s college money on her and I would be damned if it was wasted, so she was going to damn well walk. I suspect that, I was talking more to myself. Anyway, folks who know me well, know that I have an inner determination that borders on relentlessness. And ruthlessly relentless I was! Daily, both Charleigh and I went outside to exercise – come hail or sunshine - with a beach towel holding her back up – just enough that her hind legs were able to touch the ground and she was forced to make the effort to use them with her forelegs. I had never realized how innovative and ingenious the human mind can be when confronted with life’s challenges. I had invented a whole customized physiotherapy regime with my own set of contraptions… I just could not afford to spend more than the five thousand plus that I already put into this treatment...

The Woman, the Beach Towel and a Hound Dog It truly was a sight to behold – the poker-faced woman (hate to admit it, but I felt like a royal idiot with an aching arm) with a very low and long back canine raised from her behind by a long jazzy beach towel walking pitter-patter clumsily on her two front legs and yet making a determined effort to use her hind legs. It certainly was a conversation starter and I must have finally gotten to know all my neighbors whom I had barely noticed earlier in the couple of years that I had been living there. Reactions varied from “lucky dog, I would have put her down” to “oh they are like kids and we have to do what we have to do for them”. You know which school of thought I belonged to. But these unsolicited remarks were certainly very revealing.

Hallelujah! -Miracles Do Happen!!!
Well our hard work paid off just when I was beginning to wonder if I had been foolishly optimistic – six months later during the Holidays!!! One day whenI was half–asleep taking a much-deserved nap in the basement which was her domain now (Chuck, as we called her affectionately, never came up the stairs again, she was too traumatized and we were happy to have it that way), I suddenly noticed in my drowsy state that the dog was walking towards me. I thought I was dreaming. Hallelujah!!!!! Doggone it (of course the pun is intended!)– my girl was taking small steps very gingerly on all four of her legs… I cried tears of disbelief and joy almost choking this big old girl in a tight hug. She was a big girl for sure… We took her to the vet who could not believe it. He said we had performed a miracle. It is no exaggeration when I say that the entire neighborhood celebrated. She had captured their hearts with her spirit and joie de vivre. After all how many two-legged dogs do you see chasing after a squirrel or go running across the street to beg for a doggie biscuit from one our neighbors or terrorize a six-foot man with her bark while unable to even stand or challenge a big dog with her deep hound bark with almost no mobility… Chuck's spirit was certainly indomitable!!! What a Holiday gift!


Charleigh had to practically relearn how to walk and stopped often

One of Life's Many Ironies...
Just when she had become strong and had started running around-thank goodness- on all her legs - rather sashaying actually, since she could never truly walk straight again,(she swayed like the all-woman that she was)and we were beginning to truly enjoy her, she died one night a little more than a year later from the bloat disease which can hit such breeds at anytime for any reason. I will not go into details about the indefinible grief that Baku and I went through. It still hurts... Your first dog is like your first crush, you never forget...

There Was a Reason...
Reflecting on all this, I do believe, Charleigh came into our life for a reason. She taught us many life lessons. That with determination, hard work and positive thinking and of course, money (that always helps) one can achieve wonders. Due to her Baku developed a strong sense of discipline, selfless love and responsibility. Most of all, she got both of us addicted to bassets for life... Because once you love basset, you truly are hooked for life...