Whose best friend?

... the dogs came back - the very next day,
the dogs came back, we thought they were a-goners
but the dogs came back they just couldn't stay away...

(inspired by "The Cat Came Back" by Harry S. Miller)

We used to have one beagle. Smart, sweet and playful, she was sometimes a handful, but mostly a good dog. Then we decided to go ahead and breed her.

(Bad Idea)

(Don't Do It)

So she had a litter of 5 little puppies. Cute little puppies. SUPER CUTE little puppies. 3 of them went off to live in other homes and two of them stayed with us. We had 3 kids, now we had 3 beagles.

(STOOOOOOPID)

Mama beagle was a very good mommy for a couple of weeks. Then she decided to get testy and crankity and crotchity and any other grumpy type adjective you can come up with. She was a PITB. period. But the puppies were cute, so ok.

But puppies take time and training takes time and no one had time (read "I", since the only person even remotely inclined to train them would have been me) to train these puppies. Snickers (mom) was content to leave the kids alone, Oreo was a little high strung and shook like a leaf if any of them or a kid got yelled at. Rolo was placid, laid back and STOOOOPID. But he was super great about letting LK climb all over him and pull his ears and stuff, so he got lots of slack for that.

Beagles roam. They escape. One of them frequently comes back injured. Let me tell you - it is NOT worth it! We found a nice home with some older kids for Oreo when they all got out once and this family found him. When we went to pick him up, he was clearly preferring their company, and they confessed they'd been looking for a dog. As being the weak link in a threesome here clearly made him anxious, we agreed to let them adopt Oreo. I haven't seen him since, but the last time I talked to the family, they were enjoying him, but not his escapes.

Many escapes later, we have misdiagnosed a broken leg, had to have surgery to insert a drain into a wound that also required stitches, picked them up from relatively remote locations and removed more ticks than I care to think about. Two nights ago, they got out again. It's a sure sign they're gone when you go to feed them and they don't come running. I sent the teenager and friends out looking, as they are usually the culprits in leaving the gate or doors open, and after they came up short-handed, LK and I went out in the car. Nothing. Even the next day, nothing.

DH was clearly and enthusiastically supporting their escape and was hoping we wouldn't get a phone call. I told him I would be calling the pound on Monday just in case, because I just can't handle the consequences, but I have to admit, I was kind of hoping someone would just think they were so cute they'd keep them and to hell with us.

The calls came, last night, about 2 hours apart from the college nearby.

sigh.

So, today it was off to Pet Foods Express (THANK YOU for installing those dog washes!!!) for a bath, remove ticks AGAIN, and wash their beds. again.

And whose best friends are these?

Anyone want a beagle? or two?