2026 Waddle Royalty

ALICE
2026 Waddle Queen

Rene Spradlin, one of our Foster Homes, originally reached out to Alice's owner through FB because they had posted about her escaping the yard again and needing someone to be home with her more often. The owner contacted her and asked if she knew of someone that might want her because they had a very busy, crowded house (the owner had just adopted his 2 little grandchildren). Plus she was food and attention aggressive with his other dog. (non-basset) Needless to say, she knew of someone!

Since he lived in the same town as Rene and her husband Curt, they arranged a day and time to go over and meet Alice. When they arrived, they met a sweet, loving dog that looked a bit underweight but otherwise healthy and in good shape. The owner stated she was 7 y/o but very energetic, loved to walk, and was somewhat of an escape artist.

But his main concern was the 3-year-old boy: he was very precocious but did not know limits or boundaries.  The owner was very concerned that Alice's mild growling as warnings could turn into more if the boy kept on irritating her. Rene contacted me and asked about potentially bringing her into the GABR Gang.  I had already heard about her through FB, so she let him know that we were working to find Alice a foster home.

I was a bit concerned about her behavior with the other dog, no kids we can manage, but finding a home without other dogs can be a problem.  At the time we had 2 foster homes without dogs and they were both full.  Rene kept in constant contact with him regarding this, but after about 1 month or so, he became impatient and called Woodford County Animal Control to come and get Alice, and they did.

We took it from there with Woodford County (who btw were very easy to work with). They would schedule her shots and spay but that didn't happen for 3 more weeks.  In the meantime we kept asking how she was doing and they said, "fine".  Finally her day came and when they opened her up, she had already been spayed. We only went by what the owner said, but we don't always get the full story. Poor Alice didn't need to spend that time at the shelter.

So Rene and Curt went over to the shelter, picked her up and brought her to Dwight with Andie who boards and trains our dogs when it's needed...just until her stitches were out. Andie reported she was such a good girl, got along with the other dogs and her girls.

One good thing...by that time one of the foster homes with out dogs opened up and Jeff Harnish came to Alice's rescue. Alice is still up for adoption.

She’s a very sweet girl, loves her walks, and is getting along with Jeff’s cat.

Look on our website for her!

Our King this year was also an owner surrender. After 5 years, they no longer had time for him.  We have each owner fill out a Surrender form which gives us an idea of the dog's traits.  The form wasn't very thorough...not neutered...mostly HT...poor with kids...and nothing was checked to say how he interacted with other dogs or cats.

They sent pictures of a beautiful boy who was losing his home. His first stop of course was to get neutered and updated on vaccines. At the time of his release, we were short on FHs. So our visiting angels in IN went to the clinic and spent time with Oliver and said he was gentle and got along fine with them. In these cases, we check with our applicants to see if they would be willing to foster-to-adopt. We had a couple who had adopted from us before who were looking for a male his age and were excited to accept Oliver.

Everything was going smoothly UNTIL their cat appeared and from then on, Oliver couldn't think of anything else accept to chase her.  He was making the poor cat's life miserable.  The couple was very sorry but had to give him back to us.  But they recommended that he go to a home with a submissive female.

So Oliver went to our friend Andie to spend some time evaluating his behavior.  He was doing fine with the other dogs who were being boarded, good with her two children and learning not to pull so hard on leash.  Andie said he needed a strong leader to enforce house manners and take the leadership role.

Oliver's second home didn't have any cats, but had a very submissive female.  They could walk her and she would stay by their side...very unusual for a basset. They also wanted a male Oliver's age to be a companion for their dog.

The first couple nights they gave Oliver all the attention and they snuggled on the sofa and all was going well...UNTIL...they gave their dog attention as well.  Oliver became possessive of their attention and started growling at their girl.  That wasn't going to work.  So Oliver came back for the second time.

So by now, we know him pretty well. Andy describes him as kind of a loner.  As you will see, he's fine here with other dogs and on walks he would be fine.  But ideally, he would thrive in a home with no cats and no other dogs. He still needs a leader who will not give him all the privileges right away. You must build a mutual trust. We're confident there's a home out there for him.