The Beagles

Longtime readers of the blog will know who "the beagles" are. Now, they've been outed by the illustration at the top of the blog, I might as well introduce them to the rest of you, especially the newbies. The original beagle is a pure-bred, called Dusty (foreground, below, dappled in sunlight). She's eight years old this week. Last December, my fiance (yes, we've upgraded again) stumbled across a beagle-mutt puppy from the local animal shelter and fell in love. We called her Eddy. For some reason, her previous owners had called Animal Control to take her to the shelter. Despite flashes of racism, she's a wonderful dog, easily trained (by beagle standards). She's a very different personality than Dusty: as outgoing as Dusty is aloof, as friendly to other dogs as Dusty is wary. Eddy has a healthy interest in food, while Dusty is pathological in her obsession to inhale every speck of edible (or non-edible) material in the fastest time possible. Amazingly, Dusty didn't go nuts when Eddy entered the picture. In fact, they've become fast, well, allies, rather than friends. Dusty's interest in squirrels has soared under Eddy's influence, and walking the two of them at the same time requires Cirque du Soleil skills. When a squirrel or a chicken bone are within smelling distance, I spin like a weathervane in a storm. Anyway, here they are, the closest I'll ever get to children.