Seven Forever

I didn’t take Buddy’s death as hard as I took Haley’s. I thought I would, but I didn’t. I do miss him, but it isn’t to the extent as how much I miss Haley. I miss her so much that if I could guarantee a few more years of quality of life, I would have walked to the ends of the earth to do so. Haley was part of me. She was a thorn in my side, but sometimes late at night I think of her and I wish so much that I could hug her once more. That being said, this month marks the first anniversary of her death.

So, what have the pups, husband, and I been up to. A lot. April hit us hard, but we somehow managed it. Between needing to cut down trees, replacing part of our sewer system, needing to buy a new washer and dryer, and a tornado hitting our city. Our house didn’t sustain any damage, but the people on the other side of town did. Some houses were destroyed. Fortunately, I don’t think our city sustained any deaths of people. Trees on the other hand…

We were without electricity for three days and had to conserve the batteries on our phones during the evening and charge our phones at work. It was difficult, but the nine of us survived and thrived. It was “fun” while it lasted, but I was so happy when we had the Internet again.

So, what about the pups?

We fostered a little Blue Heeler mix for a month or two. Her previous owners had to move and they couldn’t take her with them and were just planning on dropping her off at the pound. We took her in and used all of our means to find her a home, but nothing panned out. We resolved to keep her, but she and Eevee didn’t get along. They had a couple fights where we had to pull them off of each other, but then it turned into a Cold War and there was tension in the air. Stella, the foster, wanted Eevee to like her, but Eevee wanted to have little to do with her. 

So I asked around in our city to see if someone wanted a heeler. I got two responses. Response one: the lady wanted Stella as a companion to her dog whose “sibling” had died sometime ago and she thought the dog was lonely (the dog wasn’t lonely, she had daily playdates with the neighbor’s three dogs). She couldn’t make up her mind if she wanted Stella or not, and I had an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. We silently agreed that it wasn’t the home for Stella. Two days later the tornado hit her neighborhood. Her house didn’t sustain much damage or at least the front of the house; however, I realized that this was the uneasy feeling that we both had.

Response two: an older gentleman wanted a sweet pup to be his companion. He had several acres of land for her to run, but mostly he wanted her to be his ears. He was hard of hearing, so he wanted a dog to alert him when someone came to the door. Also, he wanted a dog to get along with his cat. I was leery that Stella and the cat would get along, but when they met a hiss was all Stella needed. The guy called me a week or so after he got Stella and gave me an update. Stella was doing great and was alerting him of visitors. She and that cat didn’t like each other, but they could coexist within the same room and would even lay on the floor within a few feet of each other. I consider that a happy ending.

Around the same time I was finding Stella a home, a family was getting rid of their Beagle because he got car sick and since they were constantly on the go, they couldn’t take him with them when they went. Sy and I are homebodies and since we already had three car sick pups (Luna, Eevee, and Sahara), we didn’t mind adding another car sick pup to the mix. His former owners called him Beagle, but we call him Toby, but he also answers to: Bean, Toe Beans, and Beagle boy. I vowed I would never bring another male dog into the house, but I did and Toby has been a dream. For some odd reason, his presence has been calming on the whole house. Go figure.

Like Eevee and Sahara, he loves to sing. Sometimes early in the morning, the three of them will howl and harmonize with each other. I’ve heard of wolves harmonizing with each other and I’ve seen videos of Huskies harmonizing with each other, but I’ve never experienced it personally. Now I have and it is the most magical thing. I know that sounds stupid, but I love hearing them howl.

Like Sahara, and seemingly most Beagles, he’s dramatic and makes even the smallest of offenses into a few seconds of him screaming at us. Since Sahara does this to her, we’ve learned to humor the dog and even apologize for brushing up against him without his permission. 

I’ve decided that I love Beagles. I’ve also decided that for some odd reason I love having seven dogs which is weird because I don’t like the number seven. I don’t even like odd numbers in general, yet somehow I’ve developed a thing for seven dogs. However, I think this is the last group of seven that I’ll have. This is a perfect crew. Our house is harmonious and I don’t think we’ll ever have that again. So I’ve concluded that once this pack is gone, I’ll only have four dogs: a Great Pyrnees, a Shih Tzu, a Beagle, and a Corgi. I hope that future crew will be as harmonious as this one.

Until next time, don’t ignore your instincts. That scent trail will lead to a squirrel.