hi, i'm buddy!

 I'm four years old and live with my humans and 3 other bassets.  I've had a pretty interesting life so far but am very happy to be where I am.  When I was just a puppy, one year old, I was found without a home and some nice people from BROOD took me in.  They sent me to live with my Foster Mom, Jane and her family.  I really liked it there but one day some other humans came and adopted me and took me to live with them.  I liked it there and thought they liked me too but every time they tried to take me to their cabin at the lake I got very sick.  On one trip there I got so sick I had to go see the vetlady.  I was just about two years old then and the vetlady said I had something called Addison's Disease and that's what made me so sick.  The vetlady said I could live a long time if I was taken care of and given lots of medicines every day for the rest of my life.   My humans didn't want to bother with me and told the vetlady to put me to sleep.   

Lucky for me, the vetlady remembered that I came from BROOD and refused to put me to sleep. Instead she called BROOD.   I had to stay with the vetlady for a long long time (over a whole month) until I was ready to go to a new foster home.   One day I got a bath (uh oh) and a nice lady named Barb came to get me.  Barb took me to a picnic and said I was going to meet my new foster Mom and Dad.  I wasn't sure about any of this.  I had other families before and they didn't keep me so I was really suspicious.  When I met my new foster parents I wouldn't look straight at them. No way was I gonna get attached to anyone again.  Uh uh!  

So I went home with these people and their other three bassets.  There were two basset girls named Molly & Maggie and one basset boy named Watson.  Molly & Maggie told me they lived with these humans since they were tiny pups and Watson said he was a foster dog like me but that he was just adopted so he could stay there forever.  WOW!  I was pretty jealous.  I thought these guys were the luckiest bassets I knew.  I knew I wasn't staying forever though cause I heard the Dad tell the Mom that they couldn't keep me because then they couldn't foster any more homeless bassets.  So I decided I might as well have some fun 'til I left and did everything I could to be BAD.  I ate the Mom's underwear, I got into the trash, I got into everything I could find.  Every time the Mom would catch me doing something bad she'd just say "oh Buddy" and give me a bellyrub.  

One day just a couple weeks after I got there, the Mom sat down with me and told me we needed to have a talk.  Uh oh.  I knew this was it.  Time to pack my bones and toys and hit the road.  I was a bad boy plus I was a lot of trouble because of my illness and just knew they were sending me on my way.   But, the Mom said "Buddy,  I love you so very much and you were meant to stay here forever"   I was sure I was hearing wrong.  She said I was staying.  Forever!  Can it really be so?  Oh joy!!!!!!  I'm staying.  I have a forever home, finally!   It was too good to be true.  But it WAS true.  They kept me.  

I've been here for two whole years now and my Mom loves me so much and I love her.  My Dad loves me too and I love him and the other bassets. I  protect my Mom from everything and am always by her side.  She doesn't care that I'm sick sometimes or that she has to take special care of me, she just loves me and gives me bellyrubs all the time.  I've got to be the luckiest basset in the entire world!!!!!!  I thank my Mom every day for keeping me.  I'm her shadow and she says that I give her a whole lot more than she gives me.  I don't think that's true, she saved my life and takes good care of me so I can live a long time with my disease but she thinks she's the lucky one for having me but I know that I'm really the lucky one.