Our basset hound, Henry, bounced away with the angel puppies when he was only 21 months old. Henry had a BIG personality. He was extremely vocal, rambunctious,"cook'n on all cylinders," and constantly being naughty. Not only was Henry stink'n cute but he loved to tell you "NO", especially when you told him "I'm the boss." We loved to scoop him up and give him a big 'ol hug, "like a hug on a ham sandwich." Henry was very kind hearted and thought everyone was his friend. If a mean snarling dog came up on him, he just stood there and did nothing. Henry was also extremely destructive. At first we thought he was just being a naughty puppy, but whatever he got his paws on, he destroyed it and ate it. He wasn't specific to any one thing, but eventually his destruction included; walls, floors, drapes, a bag of wire nuts, a flashlight, my husband's Bluetooth. Henry even edged a section of our backyard one day. As the destruction increased, Henry started to do a repetitive counter-clockwise circling, never clockwise. We couldn't even make him go clockwise. Then one day Henry ate 3 big rocks, and we had them surgically removed. This is when we learned for the first time that Henry could have a cranial tumor. Hoping for the best, we built Henry a rock free playground, including a tire swing and bought him a basket muzzle. We decided to counter Henry's destruction with what we referred to as "destruction therapy." We gave him safe things to destroy, plain boxes, lidless milk jugs and old shirts. Henry loved to fetch, but instead of fetching sticks we would fetch popsicles. However, one day Henry started to have seizures. We tried medications, but one night the seizure wouldn't stop and you could see that Henry wasn't there anymore.

No matter how hard now is, we know Henry wasn't meant to be here long. It's hard when you lose someone with such a big personality. Henry didn't fill a room, he filled the whole house. We have never laughed as much as we did when we had Henry. He loved us unconditionally and we loved him the same. Henry taught us that its okay to not finish what your working on to go play with your best friend, and that the best part of the pond is the stinky muck along the edge and most of all, to enjoy the time you get.

Barb V.