Last week I was away on a small vacation. Picture beautiful rain forests, chilly weather, misting rain and a walk. Everything was glorious in my books. Having escaped the hot temperatures in Southern California we head up to British Columbia. If you've never been, go. This was our second trip back and it was even better this time.
As we were out on one of our many coastal walks we ran into a dog named Boomer, Boomer the Basset Hound to be precise. As we stood chatting to the couple who belonged to Boomer I wondered; was he a mix Basset. You see Boomer looked very much like a perfect specimen except that he had long hair and a gorgeous plumed tail, much like a Golden Retriever tail.
We met Boomer and is Guardians several times during our walks and each time he sounded off a wonderful greeting. :)
So I had to ask "is he a mix?" "No, he's a long haired Basset" his Dad explained. ?????? In all my years of shooting dogs, showing in the conformation ring and just day to day out there around dogs I'd never seen a long haired Basset. Boomer's guardians explained that the long hair is produced by a recessive gene that can show up in a litter. Although it is very rare.
I thought that he was absolutely gorgeous. I like different, I'm not a cookie cutter fan and Boomer most definitely did not fit the Basset mold that I knew. His long hair was perfect, with the leg feathering and plumed tail; he couldn't look anymore handsome than he was.
I love when nature takes over and gives us something different. This was a "wow, I never knew" moment for me. I've photographed dogs for big dog magazines for years. I've even done several Basset Hound shoots and never met a single long hair. Very cool and very handsome.