A sad kiss goodbye

Hello everyone. Marmie's human here. I just wanted to let you know that we lost our beloved girl this Sunday. She had a wonderful Saturday morning romping in the snow with Bernie and was fine until the evening, when she got very sick. We were completely snowbound and the vets we spoke to on the phone gave us some advice but we had no choice but to take care of her and hope for the best. I stayed on the sofa bed and tried to reassure her. She eventually settled down and I fell asleep. We found her the next morning. In hindsight, there was probably nothing the vets could have done. It's likely that her liver failed as a result of the medications she was on. We are consoling ourselves with the fact that she had a great last six months and was happy almost until the end. Her grandparents have been visiting and she got more love and affection than ever the last few weeks. Needless to say, we are devastated and shocked at this great and sudden loss. Marmalade was with us for almost three full years. Whatever her past, we know that these were three good years. She was loved and cherished every single day by us, our friends and neighbors, and her brother, Bernie. The sadness on people's faces when we walk down the street with only one hound is palpable--she was such a fixture in the neighborhood. We will all miss her beautiful bay (she was known as the neighborhood rooster) and I will miss our sofa-bed snuggles so much. People thought I was crazy for spending the last six months downstairs with her on the sofa bed; I'm so glad I had that time with her. She fell asleep every night with my arms around her and woke up to a kiss on her beautiful, noble head.
Rest in peace, my beautiful girl. You will never be forgotten.

--Marmie's human, Ilonka

By the way, the photo above was taken on Saturday morning while they romped in the snow. I could not think of a nicer picture to post.

'Tis the season...

'Tis the season to be houndly, fa la la la la--a-roo!

I was not amused and suffered the indignity of wearing antlers for only a few short minutes. The things we do for our humans... seriously!

Anyway, life in Houndonia has been quite eventful. The grand-human from Canada is visiting and another is set to arrive tomorrow. This means more pets and hugs and, of course, opportunities to swipe food when they're not looking (alas, they are not owned by hounds). Speaking of being owned by hounds, Dad gets us on weekends and last weekend we managed to successfully sandwich him on the sofa bed. With all the snoring going on, Dad said it was like sleeping on a massage-bed.


I also have to share this pic of Bernie doing his pig imitation:


This was taken on Thanksgiving. Of course, the humans gave thanks for having us hounds around. They also got on the topic of what life would be like without us. Unimaginable!

Food could be left on the counter;
There would be ample sofa and bed space;
The humans would gain weight and get way too much sleep;
The vacuum would get a well-deserved vacation;
The neighborhood would be quiet--no ear splitting bays;
The postman would actually walk up to the house slowly, instead of sprinting up to the mailbox and back due to the furious barking and baying;
The humans would have something called "disposable income" since they would not have to shell out for food, treats, medicine, and expensive vet visits;
The walls would stay clean;
Clothing would remain undecorated by rope drool;
And the list went on until they humans decided that houndlessness would be boring beyond belief!

I will sign off on that happy note.

Marmalade, a most festive hound

Cats

It seems that the cats the humans have been feeding are here to stay... We have not yet worked out a peaceful coexistence, however. Right now, the cycle is, cats eat and sit on porch, we stare, we chase. They are kind of cute though.

This is the mother cat.


And here is me staring at one of the kittens on the chair.



She was clearly not amused...



I spent the rest of the morning looking out the windows and tracking their every move.



Mom thinks I'm more curious than anything. Bernie, however, was sent downstairs. He's a lot more than curious.

Leaf pile adventures

The weather turned cool and the leaves have really started to turn and fall to the ground. Fall is a great season for us hounds--all these smells--mold, decomposing stuff galore--yum! Us hounds have it good. The humans spent the afternoon raking while we hung out and sniffed. Here's Bernie lying in his favorite leaf pile. I don't lie in the piles, especially since Bernie likes to "mark" them...



I don' t mark, but I sure sniff. I smelled squirrel and even the cat that's been eating on the porch.



The humans get mad when I eat yucky stuff in the yard, but I'm a hound--I can't resist!



This hound sure does get tired at the end of the day, though... So tired that I decided to take up two dog beds instead of one. My humans call it "bloodhound sprawl". The photo below shows my massive paws--which lately are in the habit of socking Mom in the face while she's sleeping. It's not my fault she takes up so much of the bed. Perhaps I should petition for my own futon, like Wimsey has...



Anyway, I'm off to the vet tomorrow for a weigh-in and some bloodwork, which means the vet techs will love on me and tell me I'm such a good girl, and so on. The best part is I get to ride shotgun (I have a doggie seat belt that keeps me safe). It's funny watching people pull up next to us and seeing their reaction when they see a large hound staring at them. It takes so little to keep humans entertained...

Sunday trail adventure

We woke up to great weather this morning and the humans decided we all needed exercise, so we went down to our local trail to enjoy the pretty fall scenery.



Lots of people and dogs about--we said hi to quite a few.
Mom tried to get a shot of me baying--this is the best she could do...


Ever the photogenic hounds...



In other news, it seems that a little cat has adopted our porch. The humans have been putting food out for her and a little box to sleep in... Cat food smells GOOD! It's not on my prescription diet, though. Not sure what the humans are thinking--I mean, a cat??? When they have hounds? Bernie was quite confused when he saw the kitty (named Emma by the humans after Mrs. Emma Peel of The Avengers' fame) sitting on the fence. He sat in front of the window and barked, but didn't really go into his usual "attack" mode. There are a couple of huge orange cats in the neighborhood and we've chased them quite a few times... Not quite sure what I think about the whole cat thing.

Sunday trail walk

Hi everyone. Sorry for the long break--Mom has been too busy to download photos. The real reason is that all the crime shows are back on... Everyone knows that Law and Order and CSI would be so much more interesting if there were a bloodhound in the mix. But then the criminals would be caught in no time, leaving the networks with no substance for the shows.

I was most impressed to see the pics of Wimsey on Park Avenue. What a busy week our handsome Wimsey had!

Anyway, last Sunday we met with our friend George the lab and his human, Tanja, and went for a nice walk along one of the trails in the area. It was a beautiful day and a great day for sniffing. Lots of critter smells. The experience proved yet again that it's impossible to get a non-blurry photo of a lab. Case in point:

Anyway, we trailed for about an hour.
Here we are looking rather noble:

We hounds just want to keep trailing... while the humans want photos.

I must admit, George the lab has a pretty good nose on him (for a lab). He's a year older than I am but did really well on the walk.

No trail walks this weekend. We went to the park in the pouring rain today--I was not amused. I wore my coat but my head and ears were dripping by the time we got home. Hope it stops soon. I'd rather have snow, like Gus and Bentley.

Fun videos

Hi everyone. We got a bath today and are not amused--now we have to go back to the drawing board to get our houndly odor back...
Mom finally got around to attaching video from our day trip. The first has a story attached to it. You see, we'd just arrived at Pembroke Springs and the fresh country air proved to be very good for Bernie's digestive system. So good, in fact, that he proceeded to take a very large poop in the field. Me being a hound, and a curious one at that, wanted to investigate. Of course, Mom had other ideas about this--hence the furious barking and baying.



This is some footage of us on the trail tracking the bear that was in the area.
Enjoy!

Day trip

Hi everyone. The fall weather has been fantastic and Mom and Dad took us for a day trip to one of our favorite places on Sunday--Pembroke Springs. I snoozed the whole way there, while Bernie looked out the window the whole time. Anyway, the hiking trails were really nice--lots of wildlife smells. Apparently the innkeeper had seen a bear last week. Here we are with Dad ready to hit the trail.

Mom and me looking cute.

Some nice bits of drool going on.

Begging for cake and cookies didn't quite go as planned...

Anyway, we were exhausted from all the activity and sacked out the whole evening and next day. We barely managed to drag ourselves around the block on our Monday morning walk. Videos will be posted soon.

Under the table dog

Hounds and humans alike enjoyed the lovely weather this weekend. We all lay outside on the grass this afternoon and snoozed. By the way, a shout out to the Life with Dogs blog for awarding this blog the Golden Hydrant. I and my team are honored. Although with all of Bernie's leg lifting, he might be a worthy nominee as well :)

Anyway, while I spend mealtimes in the corner of the dining room waiting for something to drop, Bernie lies under the table. As soon as Mom and Dad sit down to eat, down he goes and spends the duration of the meal there. He is one funny hound, but I love him.

And here he is showing his lovely leg lift position--Mom thanks her lucky stars for all the acid-loving plants in our garden.

The Marmalounger

Hi all, hope you're keeping cool, except old frosty paws in Alaska... It's been an eventful week--saw the vet yesterday and my bloodwork came back pretty good, so I can stay on my medication and keep gaining weight. I'm at 60 lbs now--up from 52 when I was really sick. I charmed the vet by giving her my paw and then drooling on her scrubs.
With all the action, there is one place that is my retreat--the place I can curl up undisturbed for hours--my arm chair, also known as the "Marmalounger". When I first got into it, Mom and Dad didn't think I would fit--well, I proved them wrong. I fold my long legs under and snooze for hours. Of course, when I want to stretch out, I just kick Bernie or the humans off the sofa and take it over. It's a hound's life.

Queen of the sofa bed

As some of you already know, Mom and Dad take turns sleeping on the sofa bed with me at night since the medicine I'm taking causes me to need to go outside very early in the morning (usually around 3 a.m.). I will admit that I thoroughly enjoy this arrangement, as does Bernie, who claims the half of the bed vacated by the downstairs-sleeping human. Besides the cuddles on the sofa and the human at my beck and call, I enjoyed some long baying sessions this weekend. Mom said one bay in particular was migraine-inducing (and she doesn't get headaches!). Anyway, if you look carefully at the photo, you can see the great shredding job that Bernie has done on the drape. Mom is in the market for hound-proof window treatments for the living room and is grateful for any suggestions.

We watched the US gymnastics championships this weekend. Lots of jumping and flipping going on--humans are weird. Anyway, if a hound competed in the sport, it might go something like this.

Hound-nastics

Tim Dagget: And here is Marmalade Bloodhound ready to mount the beam. She needs a perfect score to take the gold. Can she do it?

Elfie Schlegel: Well Tim, those enormous ears caused her to trip during last night's routine. It looks like she's wearing her pink snood (courtesy of teammate Bentley's Mom) to match her leotard tonight.

And here she goes--mounting with a graceful bound and bay. Then a sit; turn on one paw; then a back leg lift (a move in honor of her brother Bernie, a real expert on leg lifting); lovely pose--nose sticking straight up; tail whip connected to another tail whip; nice series of bunny hops (in her free time, this athlete enjoys terrorizing the bunnies in her yard); and here's the dismount--a double twisting tail grab stuck cold.

Her coach is baying with delight. Marmalade is back at the beam chewing the leather cover off and sniffing the chalk bowl.

Tim: and the audience is on their feet! Even the judges are baying! And she gets a perfect score! What a long way this hound has come--traveled all the way from Georgia to train with the best hound-nastics coaches in the DC area, and boy, it's paid off! She gets a standing ovation and is now flinging drool at the audience. What a talent!

***

OK enough dreaming about hound-nastics... Gotta get Mom downstairs to open up the sofa-bed--it's almost bedtime! Good night all!

Hound brother therapy

Hi everyone. I was really under the weather on Friday with an upset tummy. Mom was really worried and rushed to pick up medicine. I was in good hands, or should I say "paws" though--big brother Bernie (who celebrated his fifth birthday and adoption anniversary on Saturday) took good care of me. He slept next to me all day. I feel much better now and scared the living daylights out of a man on our walk this morning with my powerful bay. A-rooo!

Marmie's Gallery of Drool Art

Hi everyone. Mom has a collection of needlepoint pictures from the "old country" hanging in the living room and last week I decided that the pictures needed a little something to spice them up. So I put forth my best drool flinging effort and I must say, the result impressed even me. Mom, on the other hand, was not pleased, although I was glad she photographed the evidence--hopefully to show how impressive our breed can be...

Clean for a cause: PART II

***
We heard this week that the dog wash raised over $3000 to benefit the county K-9 unit. That's great news!!!
***

Continuing our photo montage of last weekend's exciting K-9 squad dog wash benefit, we have some photos of the "aftermath" and return home. While I enjoyed the event (and even tolerated the bath), once we were clean, I felt it was time to go back to the car and go home. Lunch and a nap were in order after all the excitement. Anyway, I towed Mom back to the car in fine bloodhound style.

Wimsey would be proud of my towing prowess--Mom could barely keep her balance. People walking by were suitably impressed.

Here's Bernie looking handsome in his driving vest. He was definitely happy to be leaving the event!

Me looking particularly noble and houndly.

Anyway, we spent the week working on our smell but it's been so dry that there's a shortage of stinky, decomposing stuff to roll in. We'll have the invite the rabbits over... although they don't seem to like to visit our yard. I wonder why...

Clean for a cause: County K-9 squad fundraiser PART 1

Hi everyone. We had quite a day today. Mom and Dad took us to the K-9 squad fundraiser. Our county has several police dogs--they even have two bloodhounds (who were working today and not present). Anyway, besides the fact that the fundraiser involved getting scrubbed in tubs, we had a great time.
Here's a fellow rescue hound checking our Bernie's hound credentials.

A couple of Great Danes also got in on the action...

Bernie was up first and did not enjoy his bath. Here's his best "poor me" pose.

Me... knowing what awaits.

Scrub time!

Toweling off yours truly.

It was a very eventful day to say the least.

Another droolcicle!

Fellow hounds--here is another entry for the droolcicle challenge!

Summer hounds!

Hi everyone,
It's been a restful weekend for us hounds and we've definitely been enjoying the cooler weather. The week has been less restful for Mom and Dad, though... I've been getting them up extra early to go outside. As a result, Mom spent a lot of time this weekend snoozing on the sofa (which is fine as long as she leaves it for me to sleep on at night). Anyway, the last week was quite hot and Bernie decided to find a nice cool spot to sleep. He dug himself a nice hole under one of the shrubs and snoozed the day away.

Here's me surveying my yard (and making sure it's not invaded by birds, squirrels, or rabbits!)

The one that got away...

It's been looking like the west coast in these parts with all the rain. YUCK! I got Mom out in it at 5:30 this morning. When she let me out later, she noticed I was sniffing hard around her hydrangea bushes but thought a rabbit had been through there. Clearly, she does NOT have my sense of smell because there was something there--a bird. A rather large bird for that matter. Never one to hesitate, with one most cat-like pounce, I caught it!

Unfortunately, it managed to get out of my jaws and hide between the fence and the porch and Mom grabbed my collar and picked me up and put me inside (I was not having any of the going inside thing). Anyway, I sat down in front of the porch door and bayed for over half an hour to no avail. When we went back out later, the bird was gone and Mom's shrubs looked quite beaten up after all the action.

Whenever I want something...

I bay. Full volume. Mom says I have a beautiful, melodic singing voice and took some video to showcase it. So here goes.
This is my "I'm hungry--give me my dinner already" song.

And this is my "Put my bowl down already--please" serenade.

A-roooo!

Central Park Safari with Wimsey

Hi everyone. Marmalade's Mom here. I got to meet his royal houndness Wimsey in New York City this week and was it ever an experience! Sir was very happy that I brought with me an entourage of admirers (my brother and his partner visiting from out of town). My brother in particular is a serious dog person and with Wimsey he got to experience some serious houndness. We had a blast--thanks to Wimsey and his humans. The weather was perfect for a lovely jaunt in the park. Here's Sir looking very handsome with my brother. Do they look alike? Perhaps a little...


And here's his royal houndness baying for attention (we had momentarily stopped petting him).



Anyway, we walked some more, he bayed some more, chucked some drool (his smart humans are always armed with drool rags), and then we ended up at Grom's Gelato--Wimsey's favorite ice cream spot. Here is some footage of Wimsey being grommed... We had quite a laugh when Wimsey got brain freeze!



And finally, Wimsey walking off into the sunset. No other comments necessary here.

A little drool...

Hi everyone. It's been nice and warm out and we spent time in the garden and lounging on the sofa with Mom. Dad is off work tomorrow, so we're going to make sure he spends lots of time with us. Since the bloodhound bloggers mentioned drool pics a while ago, Mom decided to immortalize my latest contribution to the world of drool art. This masterpiece was created last night after the dinner dishes were cleared away. Note the lightness of the drool in contrast to the gleaming teak of the table... the shape of this goober is also impressive--certainly some of my best work. Top this, fellow bloodhounds!

Mantrailing and Bernie's bloodhound heritage

Hi everyone! We had some fun today--Mom and Dad did a mantrailing exercise with us. Well, in our case, it was a woman-trailing exercise since Mom was the quarry. Basically, Mom took off and we had to track her down and find her. It was lots of fun! After getting sidetracked due to the wind blowing her scent around, we found her. She decided to take off one more time and I bayed furiously for her to come back. She didn't so we had to find her, which we did five minutes later. Dad observed that Bernie and I have very different traits when trailing. I'm the nose (obviously!) while Bernie relies on his eyes and ears... The combination of the two of us is impressive indeed! We were pretty tired when we got home and had a nice snooze once we got home...

Speaking of noses and such, Bernie had a DNA test a while ago and it turns out that Bernie is part bloodhound, part Pyranees, and part Cocker Spaniel (!!?). The bloodhound part is definitely there--he has quite a nose of him and he even has a few wrinkles, as you can see on the photo.