Outlaw Dog Duo

One day in 2003 I arrived at my Dad’s house for the weekend. What I did not know is that this weekend would be much different than any other before. As I got my bags unloaded from the truck he told me to let him get inside the house first so he could check on something. A few moments later he told me and my sister we could come inside. He then told us to go look out onto the back porch. As we got ready to open the door to the back porch, we saw through the window on the door two goofy and excited basset hounds waiting for us to come outside and play.

Now, these were not two ordinary basset hounds as I would come to learn over the next few years of having the privilege to be around them. I asked my dad what their names were, and he replied, “Bonnie and Clyde”. I knew with names like those there had to be an interesting story behind this barking duo. My dad being my dad could not resist telling me how he came to the decision to call them Bonnie and Clyde.

A few weeks prior my stepmother had spotted the two basset hounds wandering alongside each other down a busy street in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She then noticed the local animal control not far behind. She then assisted the animal control in getting the dogs off the street who then took them to the local animal shelter. After being unsuccessful in finding the owner of the dogs the shelter reached out and asked if my stepmother and father would be interesting in adopting the dogs. Knowing that the dogs would have a low chance of being adopted due to being out of the puppy stage of life they were approximately two or three years old at the time. My dad and stepmother also did not want to risk the dogs being separated so they agreed to adopt the two runaways.

It was noticed by the shelter that the male hound showed some defensive behavior around adult men and believed him to have been in an abusive home in the past. Given that information, my dad said he felt the dogs were running from a bad situation and since the animal control was already on their trail, they appeared to be a pair of outlaws. So, it was only appropriate in his mind to name the duo after the famous outlaw couple.

Clyde who had a sort of blocked shape head taught me a lot about loving for animals. While he sometimes got defensive, he usually ran up to me with the most playful intentions. He also suffered from occasional seizures. While it could have been easy knowing these two complications with Clyde to have only adopted Bonnie or let them stay at the shelter until someone else adopted them my dad still took him in and provided him with the utmost care. In return Clyde became an instrumental part of our family teaching my sister and myself to love all animals and that just because a dog is not a puppy or perfect in health or behavior that it cannot be brought in a be a good family dog given the proper love and care.

Bonnie had that traditional long face and extremely floppy ears that basset hounds are known for. She believed herself to be a lap dog and would always jump into your lap if you sat on any outdoor furniture. She would even get spotted sitting in the chairs by herself and sometimes on the outdoor table. The only thing Bonnie really cared to do is cover your face in slobber with her tongue and announce whenever a squirrel came into the yard.

These dogs were not planned to become part of our family, but they found their way there anyway. For the next five years, those two helped create memorable stories for my sister, my dad, and myself. They also created a cool story about where they came from that just does not come from purchasing a new puppy. So, next time I get a dog for my family I will be sure to check out local shelter first before adding my name to a waitlist with local breeders. Unfortunately, these dogs were before the age of taking photos every few minutes and posting them on social media. So, I no longer have any photos of these outlaw dogs that helped shape my childhood, but their memory is still vivid in my mind.