joe randel's art dump

Today (April 9th) my Beagle turns 10.  It’s strange to think that my dog is now is in his senior years. I remember when he was puppy.  Not just a little puppy though.  A new born puppy.

See 10 years ago my wife and I fostered a lady Beagle that was pregnant.  We didn’t know that she was pregnant, the Humane Society told us she was just fat.  When we went to pick her up they told us that she was indeed pregnant and that if we wanted, they could have a vet “scrape the puppies out”.  That’s not an exaggeration, she literally said scrape.  We where horrified at that the thought, told her no and brought her home.  A few weeks later she gave birth to 7 Beagle puppies!  Right there in our very own living room.  She let us touch and hold the new born puppies and we even helped to break some of the birth sacks for her… which she later ate.  The puppies eventually had to go back to the Humane Society to be adopted and we ended up with Momma Beagle for our own.  She was sad to loose all her babies and you could tell.

A few days later I went to drop off some dog food as a donation and I saw one of the Beagle puppies behind the counter.  I asked the worker about him and mentioned I had heard that all the puppies had found new homes.  They told me the others did but this one was never picked up and no one could be reached regarding him.  I called my wife right away and asked if she wanted to adopt him too.  She said yes and by the end of the day we had brought back one of Momma’s puppies to her.  She was so happy! ^_^

Sadly we lost Momma dog to invertible disk disease two years later so we’re extra happy to still have one of her puppies with us.  10 years later I still look back and remember the tiny little puppy that made his way in to the world in my living room.  Here’s to you Bernard!  I hope you had a happy birthday!