‘These two puppies walk around the house, shoulder to shoulder, like cops on the beat. Feeding time is chaos. But we don’t care. We remember the silence’
30/09/2024 - NEWS - Paul Howard has written an essay for us about his new basset hound puppies, pictured is Paul with 'Walter' and 'Arthur'. Photograph Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times. We got two, since we figured that it would take that number to fill the hole in our lives left by Humphrey.
A few days later, we found out about a family in Kilkenny, whose basset had given birth to a litter of 10. We saw the photographs. We phoned the number. We were smitten by two in particular. They happened to be the biggest and the smallest in the litter. The biggest was a lemon-coloured puppy – the blond, I call him – who was so big that he had to be delivered by Caesarean mid-labour.
We gave them human names. The blond would be Arthur. The brunette would be Walter. Over the weeks that followed, as the two little trip-hazards made themselves at home, we watched their personalities take shape. Walter – the small one – was the boss. He let Arthur know when it was time to play and when it was time to rest. They familiarised themselves with the garden by venturing a couple of metres further every day. Walter led. Arthur followed. That’s the way it’s been ever since.
They never did yowl for their mother in the night – not even once. But if we separate them, for instance, to bathe them one at a time, they whine until they’re back together again. They walk around the house, shoulder to shoulder, like cops on the beat. When they go outside for their 5am wee, they perform the duty standing side by side and you would struggle to fit a cigarette paper between them.
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