First steps

Monroe felt home the second he set food in our apartment. Like a rocket he was shooting from one end to the other of our place. Jumping on couches and beds as if he had wings... we were amazed, since we have been told that bigger steps are hard on those short legs.

It was fun to watch him full of energy checking and sniffing every single spot. Soon he claimed his personal spots:

the couch in the kitchen

& 

the bed in the music room

Honestly, who has a heart to tell an all snuggly and sleepy basset NO or GET OFF?! Not me - and neither has Spencer. So we let him explore, run, jump, snuggle, sleep and repeat all day. We were so happy that Monroe settled in so nicely.

That night we had a little welcome home party, where  we introduced Monroe to some of our friends. He was the big star and even after demonstrating his FOOD NINJA skills aka COUNTER SURFING mastery, everybody was quite impressed how comfortable Monroe was even after just a few hours in his new home.

After a nice party, we all went to bed to catch some sleep. Our furry friend was exhausted all day next day. He is a little ballerina: Dance all night and sleep all day!

The following few days brought quite some changes. Monroe has been described as shy towards people and other dogs - which soon was to go away. It only took a few days till he wasn't hiding from other passing dogs anymore. He turned my heart attack into pure excitement when those two unleashed golden retrievers ran towards him. For the first time he didn't shy away, instead he did his dog-thing: sniffing butts etc and played with them happily. 

It took him a while to overcome his "fear" of tall loud men, but due to a secure good loving home, he is now a confident pup ... in certain regards a little too secure, but way to cute to be called off. Can you blame him?! 

July 20th 2011 - Gotcha!

Long time before that day we have joked about getting a dog- since I have always considered myself living with cats. But ever since I have seen my first basset on TV (not quite sure if it was Columbo or Loriot), I fell in love with those droopy eyes and long velvet ears.

After my boyfriend and found a very nice and spacious apartment our silly talk about getting a dog became more and more serious and after spending Saturday nights watching youtube clips of basset dogs and puppies, our hearts made the decision for us! We want to adopt a basset!

Browsing the web made it easy. We came across two great rescues: Basset Buddies and Guardian Angel Basset Rescue . Both are very helpful when it comes to picking out a good match. Basset Buddies offers a meet and greet on a regular base and we were invited to meet Jack, a five year old basset who they thought was perfect for us. We were so excited and almost unable to go to sleep. Late that night, close to midnight, I checked their page one more time and there he was: Monroe:

Certainly not the most flattering picture, but he had the three color coat that I love so much in a basset. Going to bed I knew it is going to be him - I only had to convince my better half, since he had set his mind for Jack.

Fate was on my - or on our (Monroe and my) side! Walking into the room towards the little meet and greet area, Monroe knew the second we set food on the ground, that he is going home with us and showed his sweetest face. Jack - a cutie as well, but nothing on Mr Monroe - was out of mind.

Just like you test drive a car, we were allowed to walk him. And it felt right. Monroe was so excited when we were all by ourselves and we knew: This is our boy!

Unfortunately we were not able to take him home that day. Monroe was just recently found as a stray and one of Basset Buddies policy is that they neuter the dogs before they find a new home. For us it meant that we had to wait one more week! OMG!!! One more week! Leaving the store I made the horrible mistake of turning around one last time and looked right into Monroe's face when he saw us leaving. It broke my heart seeing those sad eyes. It was almost as if he was saying: "Wait for me! You cannot leave me!"

But time is just and after 7 days, we drove out one more time just the two of us to double the legs in our household - one of the best days in our lives!