Adventures with Henry

This morning's adventure with Henry was this. He came to the bedside in the morning and he, Maggie, and I were all happy to see each other. We got dressed and went for a walk and I thought for sure he'll do his business this time (didn't pee last night after the one in my house, no poops yet). We walked around the apartment complex a bit and he seemed to get tired and maybe turned around.

As we were coming back to my place, I thought I'd take him once around the back, and he trounced down into the brush and then the woods. I'd read that bassets were very efficiently built for making fast progress through brush, and that is true. He got the scent of something. There are so many thorns back there - I dropped his leash once and regrabbed it once I got back around a more people-friendly way. The second time I dropped it he got really far away from me and thank goodness the scent of whatever he was tracking ended at some point. His harness was around just his back hips. Picked up the leash, fixed the harness, and he took off again. Got to the top of a bank and the edge of a thicket of thorns 6 feet tall. He really wanted to go in there. I had to drag him back - harness around his back hips only again. But it worked. A few other incidents along the same lines.

So, Henry can really get around. He's pretty fast when he wants to be. And of course, he is all about the nose. I knew that of course, but I hadn't seen it in action - now I understand why people don't let their bassets and beagles off the leash. I wonder if perhaps he got separated from his family because of that nose, so I think I need to put up some signs where I found him. Wow. That was a one-hour outing. He prefers to do his business in the woods (at least he peed - he may or may not have pooped - I smelled some when I caught up to him but don't know if it was his). And he almost came inside without doing his business, which could only have led to another accident in the house. We definitely have a communication gap here.