A Basset Contemplates the Sea (Illustration By Tom Aczel)

Bassets view the sea differently from other dogs.

Whereas other dogs think about the surface of the water, Bassets think about the bottom of it.

​Basset bones are dense. So dense, in fact, that whereas other dogs can frolic in the water and paddle around, Bassets will immediately sink to the bottom.

When I see Bassets cautiously wade into the water, I often think that they wish that they had diving helmets. Then, they could stand at the seas’s bottom, and look up at the dogs playing far above