Today (7-5-08) was such a sad day for me... Paul, Tubby, and I helped my very first foster failure, Arthur Dale, to the Bridge. Arthur was the loudest, grumpiest, and sweetest Basset Hound! He came to me when my friend, and room mate at the time, pulled him from a shelter over 5 years ago. He was our second official foster and the one that stole my heart away!

Janiece and I were with Basset Hound Rescue of Alabama at the time and I can't even begin to count how many dogs came through these doors! Every year BHRA has an annual Basset Bash and I was 'urged' to bring Arthur Dale since he was a foster. I reluctantly packed him and Tubby up and we headed to the Bash. I was in charge of helping with the games that day so I put Arthur in the crate I brought him with a special sign I had made with his name on it and went to help the others with every game you can imagine a Basset Hound participating in - even agility! I went back over to Arthur's crate a little while later and he was gone, in his place was my Tubby and everyone was walking by saying hello to 'Arthur Dale'! I looked around and found Arthur with a very nice couple that had adopted a small Asian girl. They said they were adopting Arthur and my heart just sank... Janiece and I sat down and got pictures with him, both of us had tears rolling down our faces but we were trying so hard to smile for the camera.

I got a call a week or two later from Charlie and this time he was the one crying. He said that it wasn't going to work out with Arthur Dale because every day when he would leave for work Arthur would run outside, squeeze under their fence and meet him at the car! He had tried several times to fix the fence so Arthur couldn't get under it but Arthur would always find a way! I knew that was a sign that he belonged with me but for the same reason I hadn't adopted him before that, I couldn't afford the adoption fee.

I called my mom and step-dad and told them that Arthur was coming back to me and they said they wanted to pay the fee so I wouldn't lose him again. They had a special place in their hearts for Arthur Dale after I told them about how he knew there was about to be a fire in here so he jumped on the baby gate until it fell and woke Janiece up. I worked nights then, too, so I was still gone. I got home at about one or two in the morning and when I pulled up there was Janiece with all of the dogs in her car! My first thought was 'where does she think she's going with my dogs?'! I honestly thought she was either moving out and taking every dog with her or she was one of those parents that drive the kids around until they fall asleep! I had never heard of anyone driving around with dogs so they would go to sleep so I was convinced she was taking my babies away!

I don't even remember what I said to her when I got out of the truck but she could probably tell from the look on my face that I was a little freaked out! She explained that there was something smoking in the house and a breaker kept flipping. We went in and when she flipped the breaker I found the problem, it was the carpet shampooer and someone had chewed the cord (which was still plugged in) and then peed on it. A wet, bare wire isn't a good thing! From then on, Arthur Dale was our Hero!!

Arthur was about 12 or 13 when he left me and the 5 years I've had him feel more like 5 minutes now... He had been going down hill for several months and we knew that his heart was very enlarged and that he had arthritis but that was all we knew for sure. I put him on Cosequin a while back for the arthritis but we needed more tests to find out exactly what was going on with his heart and why he was deteriorating like he was. I had finally decided to do the tests we would need - against Paul's wishes - but just in the last week or two Arthur seemed like he was asking me to let him go.

He was sleeping outside and coming inside to potty. He was usually the first one in the kitchen when it was time to eat - and also the loudest - but he had started sleeping through us getting the bowls ready and we sometimes had to take his bowl out to him and wake him up to eat. His walking had become painful to watch so he was getting pain meds so he wouldn't hurt so much but they didn't seem to help him much. He had lost so much weight and no matter how much I fed him he never gained it back.

Arthur gave me some very special moments, a lot of laughs and a few tears. I don't think he had a very good life before Janiece rescued him but I hope from that day on he enjoyed it. He was never one to cut up or play but I did see him play with a wiener I was babysitting once, that was so hilarious! I was so shocked I couldn't move and just stood there and watched them until they were finished.

Arthur Dale will be so missed and has taken such a big part of our hearts! I know Tubby will probably grieve as much as I will, she was Arthur's doggy wife and they were always so cute together. Arthur had a special steak breakfast this morning, I hope he really enjoyed it. I'm not looking forward to feeding everyone this evening, it's going to be pitifully quiet...

Say hello to Doodlebug for us, sweet Arthur Dale, we miss you both so much! Run free in your new body- free from your physical pain, free from your fear of those horrible thunderstorms, free from your anxiety of those evil smoke detectors beeping when the batteries are going dead, free from this fence that has always held you in even though you never tried to escape...

Please send me a butterfly once in a while to let me know you're alright, I'll be waiting. Mommy loves you, Arthur Dale.