It's taken nearly two years, but Peaches has finally become fully basset.  When walking her in the neighborhood, if I do not take her in the direction she wants to go, she freezes in place and peers up at me in a rather sulky and pitiful manner until I have no choice but to comply.  I am powerless to refuse a face like that.    

Who needs a GPS system when you have a basset hound?  Peaches always knows when our walk is winding down and we are headed in the direction of home.  She takes every opportunity to stall for more time, pausing to smell every tree, every flower, every blade of grass.  When I first adopted her, she couldn't move fast enough through the neighborhood, which was chock full of scary things, to get back to her safe house.  Actually, it was kind of nice because I could actually cover ground at a quick pace and get some real exercise while walking the family dog (something I have not been able to do for the past 30 years with a succession of slo-mo bassets).  Now, confident in her territory, she flops down on one after the other neighbors' lawns and refuses to proceed until I say the right phrase or give a special whistle to coax her onward.

Tonight while I was typing at the computer,  she decided that I was not giving her my undivided attention (we had just finished our nightly games with her favorite toys, Foxy Loxy, Barky Larky, and Loopie Loo, the only toy of hers that still squeaks).  All of a sudden she let out the first really long, loud basset howl she's emitted since I adopted her in 2006.  I think we were both equally surprised by the sound that came out of her.  She certainly had my full attention. Mission accomplished.  Yep, Peaches is finally 100% basset hound...oh, and in case I neglected to mention it, the utter joy of my life.