Fall 2017  Saber Tails 75    

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

Austin had somehow unlatched herself from the seat belt.  She was still wearing her harness.  She must have been 

bouncing up and down while looking out the window.  And she was clearly bouncing hard enough to have depressed 

the buckle release.  As soon as she realized she was free, she hopped from the back seat over the center console into 

the driver’s seat and put her feet on the wheel.  She apparently was bouncing around up there hard enough to kick the 

shifter into the neutral position which allowed the car to start backing down the incline out of the driveway.  Amaz-

ingly, she must have been turning around with her feet on the wheel because she managed to make the turn out 

the driveway to head down the street.  Aided by gravity, the car kept rolling.  But Austin actually turned the wheel!  If 

she hadn’t, the care would have rolled out of the driveway, across the street, into the neighbor’s driveway.  Instead, it 

turned about 45 degrees and rolled down the street a ways until the street turned.  At the turn, the car hopped the 

curb and ended up in the bushes.

This is one of my favorite stories of PBGV devilry and resourcefulness.  It’s also a cautionary tale and quite possibly a 

good argument for crating your PBGVs when you leave the vehicle unattended!

500 Channels & Nothing Good on TV

Featuring  

“Cider”

As Told By Tiffany Cannon

An ongoing ‘argument’ between my husband and I revolves around tele-

phones and tv remotes.  He religiously uses the remotes and telephones while 

sitting in one place in a room - usually on the couch.  I tend to wander and 

multi-task while talking on the phone and watching tv.  That means I frequent-

ly, absentmindedly walk around with a phone or remote in my hand and it can 

end up in any room in the house.  Okay...I can admit that sounds annoying, but 

I won’t tell him that!

One morning, I woke up, turned on the television to watch the news and went 

about my business cleaning the puppy pen, feeding the dogs and folding 

some clothes before heading to the shower to get ready for the day.  Bill was in 

watching the news when I left for work so the tv stayed on in the den.

When I got home from work, I noticed a different remote control on the coffee table and Bill giving me that look.  

“What???”  Here we go again.  “The remote appears to be missing.”  And the conversation continued down its normal 

path.  “Well I had it this morning to turn on tv, so it must be here somewhere.”  Again with the look.  Bill explained that 

he had looked everywhere earlier and couldn’t find any sign of the remote anywhere in the house.  He had found an 

old universal remote and programmed it to work with our new tv so he could change the channel earlier.  “Oops...”  

Guilty as charged...I promised to look for it after we finished our dinner.  

As we sat on the couch with the dogs lounging on the floor and the puppies playing with their toys, the tv started ran-

domly changing channels.  It would run rapidly through the channels, stop for a minute, go to the previous channel, 

then flip back.  The volume was going up and down.  It was acting like a possessed appliance.  We quickly surmised 

that we must be sitting on the remote.  It must have gotten tucked down the side or somehow been pushed under a 

cushion.  While Bill and I stood up and started pulling cushions off the couch and recliner chair, the channels started 

flipping wildly again.  No remote under the cushions.  No remote tucked down by the arm.  We turned the chair and 

couch on their sides and found nothing.   Where is the darn thing?!?!

Looking over at the puppies, Cider was busily chewing on something.  On closer inspection, he was chewing happily 

using the missing remote as a teething toy.  Chewing on each of the buttons in turn, he was rapidly flipping through 

Con’t on p 81