THERE IS A WAY OUT OF HERE!
   

    Remember me? I’m Emma the Basset Hound. Shortly after my arrival at the Shaffer pack’s home, I wanted to go outside. I could see a nice yard out a long window that went down to the floor. The long window slides so that you can walk outside. My lady took me outside through the long window but she always stayed with me. I would just get to sniffing a good smell and she would decide it was time to go inside.
   

    I heard my lady and the man talking about a fence. I had seen something that was called a fence at my old home. The dog next door to my old house was caged in a fence. He didn’t have much room to move. He didn’t get to sniff around. He just stayed in that fence. I didn’t like the talk about a fence.
   

     At my old home I didn’t have a fence so I could sniff all over the neighborhood. It was during one of these nice long sniffs that my pack got lost. I could probably find my way out into the neighborhood if my lady was not watching so closely. I wanted to be outside to sniff more but I didn’t want to be caged. No, no, no. No fence!
   

    The man was home with us for two days. He worked in the yard most of that time. He was building a fence! Maybe this wasn’t such a nice place to live! Then he moved part of the long window and put a wooden thing in one end of it from the top to the bottom. I couldn’t see through that wooden thing. He then announced that the fence was ready for Emma, that’s me not cheese. Oh, no, I’m not going to like this.
   

     My lady went outside. The man stayed with me in the house. My lady called my name from the other side of the window. How did she think I could come to her with the window closed and that wooden thing in the way? The man wanted me to crawl through that wooden thing. The man pushed a flap. I could see outside. I could smell my lady on the porch. Oh, she had cheese. Although I was scarred, I went through the flap to get the cheese. Mmmmm, cheese. I’ll do anything for cheese. I was getting ready to go sniffing when the man called my name. He had cheese on the inside of the house. How could I get back in? My lady pushed the flap and I went inside. Wow, it goes both ways! I went in and got the cheese from the man. Then my lady was calling again. “Push the flap”, the man said and he pushed it for me. I was out in a flash getting another piece of cheese. The man called. This time I pushed the flap. It wasn’t hard to do. I zipped inside and got another piece of cheese! We played that game for a few more times. Then they left me alone in the yard. By now I wasn’t afraid of being alone in the yard. I knew I could just push the flap. I started sniffing. I could go under the large plants called Rhododendron. It’s nice under there. The smells are good, moist ground, tracks of small animals, places where other Bassets had buried stuff to protect it. Good smells, yes in deed! I spent a couple hours just sniffing. I would come to a wall but there was plenty of room to turn and go in another direction. Where was this fence they had been talking about. I didn’t see a cage.
   

    That evening when we were all inside the house, I learned that the wall is the fence. I have a big fence and a big yard. The other thing is called a “puppy door”. It is just for me, too!
   

    I do like this Shaffer pack. I do. I do. I do.