First and foremost let me say – I love Molly Smith and ABTCR (and the wonderful group of hound lovers on the Facebook page). They allowed us to adopt Guinness and when we lost him in November of 2014 and our hearts were broken they offered us comfort and love. And then we got an email from Molly saying “have you thought about a bloodhound?”

Hmmm… how to answer that question. Yes, we’d thought about a bloodhound and we’d thought about another Black and Tan, but wanted to make sure the vet bill with Guinness was paid off and that our hearts were ready to accept another, so my answer was “Why? Do you have one that isn’t on the website yet?” That was a silly question. Meet Uber she said, and sent this picture.

Seriously? Resisting that face would have been impossible! My husband’s reply was “I don’t like Molly anymore – she doesn’t play fair”. So, as it goes, we asked questions, we got more tempting emails and pictures and we couldn’t resist. So on February 28th this beautiful Georgia girl came home to Central Illinois. I’d like to say the last 6 months have been easy, but they haven’t. Mabel is stubborn. Mabel is aloof. Mabel doesn’t like to cuddle (unless she initiates it). Mabel likes to run the show. Mabel isn’t food motivated. Mabel does things in her own good time (which doesn’t necessarily go with the house schedule). Mabel is a bed hog and is not a “morning” dog. And Mabel is one of the SWEETEST dogs I’ve ever met. She loves kids and the neighborhood kids (who aren’t afraid of her size) just love her. Saturday and Sunday mornings are her favorite because the alarm clock doesn’t go off at 5:30 a.m. and around 7 a.m. when she’s the first one to wake up and has figured out we’re not going to work – the tail starts thumping. I think Mabel is finally starting to realize we are her family. And I think she is slowly starting to show more affection and seeks out more contact with us. We recently took her with us on vacation and when we got to our destination (12 hour drive) she was a hot mess - scared of every noise and every person, cowering behind our legs, etc. etc. We felt so badly for her… but the next day she started using that wonderful nose and although still stayed pretty close to us, she was able to check out some great scenery… and since we’ve been home she’s like “yep – this is mine”. Yep, Miss Mabel, this is your forever home. Thanks, once again to ABTCR and their incredibly giving and loving volunteers. Sue and Gale