A special day for our special Beagle girl



Beagle's Shelter Mug Shot

 Today we celebrate our litlle "Beagle's" gotcha day.  It was nine years ago that we raced time to hurry down to the Spalding GA "gassing" shelter to rescue a poor scared beagle that dozens of advocates had sent to me.  At the time Spalding used to post the urgents with a troublesome line that included "this dog will be available until 4:30 PM......meaning at 4:31 the dog would be loaded into Spalding's "Gas Chamber" and killed.

We almost didn't make it - a traffic wreck on the interstate could have easily lead to "Beagle's" demise.  After pulling in with only minutes to spare I paid the twenty dollar adoption fee and headed back to find my dog.  What I saw was a terrified little beagle girl who drove her nails into the cement as I hoioked up her lead.  Her kennel cage was within seeing distance of "Ole Smokey" and I do believe that Beagle thought I was there to drag her into the chamber like so many that went before and never came out.

Beagle in 2001

Beagles have that highly sensitive nose which could sense the smell of death that drifts through the air every night at killing time.  After struggling with a determined girl who wasn't going down without a fight I finally was able to load her into my truck - she threw up the whole way home.

I had never intended to keep Beagle - after all, she wasn't a basset. I started calling her "Beagle" so as not to get attached.  Beagle had other ideas - after all, she's still here.  Through the years she has always been a bit on the skittish side with strangers - even been known to take a nip at someone's ankle if they got too close but she has also developed into the sweetest friend one could ever have.

Beagle has her routines but the funniest is her bedtime routine.  Every night she insists on crawling into bed to get her neck scratched - give her daddy a kiss and wander off to the end of the bed to sleep.  Her world is safe.  Since Beagle really didn't do well when I wasn't around I started taking her with me everywhere I went.  This extra attentionj has paid off with a very well rounded personaility she has developed.  While she now tolerates other people she still loves her daddy best.

Home at Last - Home for good

It's hard to imagine my little beagle girl is now approaching ten years of age.  She is the one who got me started in beagle rescue.  It was her survival that gave me reason to oppose the use of gassing for any shelter animal as cruel and unusual punishment for dogs who were guilty of nothing except the misfortune of having an irresponsible owner who dumped them in a gassing shelter.

Not to say that Beagle's "rescue" wasn't without challenges.  All of life's true rewards come through our tenacity to struggle and overcome.  It would take six months before little Beagle figured out the housetraining thing.  For years she's been an "ankle biter" whenever faced with strangers she didn't trust.  Patience has paid off through the years and Beagle has adjusted to all the confident beagle thjat she was supposed to be.  Today's her day = Happy Gotcha Day my little Beagle friend.