Fall 2017  Saber Tails 65    

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

Day 2

 – let the dogs out for a morning potty.  Cleaned the puppy pen and went out 

to get the dogs back in.  Uh oh…there should have been four but only two were 

in the back yard.  Fat and recently having given birth Apple and our GBGV Jezebel.  

Where were Aslak and Monroe?  Two fence boards behind the garage were popped 

and the skinnier-smaller dogs had squeezed through into the back neighbor’s yard.  

Monroe and Aslak were free to terrorize the much-beloved goose and duck popu-

lation of our temporary home.  Uh oh.  Heading out the front door, we discovered 

Monroe sitting on the front porch waiting to be let back into the house – what a 

good girl.  And our most-frustrating scallywag, Aslak, magically appeared back in 

the yard after we searched the streets of the Seven Lakes subdivision for quite some 

time. Happy, tongue hanging out – he’d had a great morning.  When he was tired, he 

snuck back in the yard and waited at the back door to be let in.  The men grabbed 

hammers and nails and went to explain to the neighbor they needed access to his 

yard to nail the fence boards back down.  It was then that we found out the dogs 

had all been to ‘visit’ him several times the past two days!  Unbeknownst to us, they 

had been wandering about freely since we arrived.  Thank God he was a nice man, 

amused and happy to have us visiting.  

Day 3

 - Out for a walk with our brood when one of the dogs bolted and took us 

on a merry chase through flood water...every ounce of clothing I had with me was 

soaked on a daily basis!  Thankfully, a large goose gave chase and our offender 

came running back.

Day 4

 - Miss Monroe thought she’d had enough of this rule about couches and 

had all of us diving for her as she jumped from couch to couch to couch to ottoman 

to chair to couch.  It was kind of funny until our friends’ 17 year old came down-

stairs and remarked about how ridiculous all the ‘old’ people looked chasing the dog 

around the living room.

Day 5

 - The flood district put out a false mandatory evacuation to the neighbor-

hood where our friends live.  As we all sat stunned, staring at the television at 5:30 

am, the authorities began questionning their evacuation orders and thankfully is-

sued a revision by midday.  I was on verge of that insane hysterical laughter that 

immediately preceeds a nervous breakdown.

T

he puppies were at an age where they needed to be able to run around some 

instead of being confined constantly to a 4 x 4 foot pen.  So, we blocked off the 

master bathroom and let them run and play on the tile floor.  The adults could peek 

in or come in to play.  Neighbor kids 

Looking toward the kennel.  The water came 

up under the floor boards but subsided before 

it got the floor wet.  We built the kennel18 

inches above the ground to avoid potential 

flooding

Bill was able to make it home every day to fill 

the generator with gas until the river rose too 

high on Friday

The water stopped just short of getting into 

the house

Patrick snuggling with his dog Charlie and 

old girl Cricket  (above) and playing with the 

puppies (left)

Con’t on p 69

Cont’d from p 44