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| Name: |
Hugo
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Age: |
Ten months old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Bluetick Coonhound |
| Home: |
Central Massachusetts, USA |
Meet
Hugo, our Bluetick Coonhound. (Or as my nephew nicknamed him, Dodo
- a combination of my husband's name, Drew, and Hugo.)
Hugo is ten months old. We think. The thing is that my mom and I found
him trotting along the side of a highway in North Carolina. We had spent
the weekend on Emerald Isle doing some planning for my wedding that
July. Our errands and appointments finished up early, so we left a whole
day sooner than expected. Talk about timing!
Hugo was running in the opposite direction when I pulled the car over. I
hopped out, called to him and squatted down while clapping my hands
playfully. He immediately turned around and ran straight at me literally
jumping into my arms. Hugo was shivering, very wet and covered in fleas
and ticks. He was ready to cuddle, so we wrapped him in a few t-shirts
and headed to the Piggly Wiggly to get what he needed for him during the
long car ride home. (We were in the first hour of an eleven hour drive
up north to where we live.) It was a wasted stop in the end because the
poor little fella slept the whole way. (I'm not exaggerating!)
Hugo weighed in at fourteen pounds on his first day home. He's a magnificent
87 pounds now and shows no signs of stopping. Hugo is a lovely, perfect
addition to our family of foundlings including Ducky the poodle and
Julia the kitty. There is a harmony to the relationship between those
three that makes them seems like siblings at time. Rivals, friends,
cuddle buds, play mates.
My husband and I had never heard of Bluetick Coonhounds before. In fact,
I had to do a google image search the morning after we picked him up to
even determine what he might be. I thought a mix, but he's matched every
single Bluetick image I found.
Things to love about Hugo:
- His velvety ears.
- His determined approach to the perfect cuddling position.
- His habit of burying bones, sticks and socks in the yard and remembering exactly where he left each one.
- His fabulous energy, unbelievable intelligence and enormous capacity for learning.
- His amazing power naps complete with grunts, moans, and barks.
- His generosity with his toys. (Ducky likes to steal whatever he's been working on, but Hugo never snaps at her.)
- His habit of cleaning Julia the cat. (She seeks him out!)
- His endless tongue, which he rolls out like a red carpet every time he yawns.
- His friendliness towards other dogs and absolutely all people.
- His devastatingly expressive eyes.
- His many, many hound voices.
One other interesting note: Hugo was found on the very same Saturday in
April that I adopted Ducky eleven years earlier. (Not the same date, but
the same day. I'm crazy for coincidences like that. They make me a
believer in fate.)
The large photo is Hugo in all of his magnificence spending some time
with Ducky in the sunshine and leaves of his first New England autumn.
The smaller image is Hugo during various power naps. He's always just
one photo opp after another!
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