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!

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