Snip, Snap, Paddy-Whack
The boys are scheduled for their neutering surgeries on 2-Jan-08. With all the testosterone washing around our knees, we can’t wait. They’ll all three be done at once. I have to have them at the clinic in Martinez by 7:30 a.m., then pick them up after 3:30. Should be a HIGHLY interesting day.
Last Night
This is our last beagle-free night. The 48 long, dreary, color-less, beagle-less nights since we lost Bayley Murphy will come to an end, thank god.
I dearly love the Beagle Boys already and can’t imagine not having them join us for the next phase of our lives, but I still miss Bayley terribly. Given a choice, I’d rather be bringing him home from the vets than the boys. Well, actually, I’d rather bring all four home, to be completely accurate. Can’t imagine not having them home too.
Bayley would have been a royally hacked-off dog if we had brought three rambunctious youngsters into his house and yard while he was still here. He was lord and master and barely suffered our presence around the place, let alone p-u-p-p-i-e-s, for god’s sake, how dare we even think it!
But he might have adapted pretty well, once they aged a bit. He would probably have spent much time upstairs, which I plan to place mostly off-limits to the boys, at least at first. And he certainly wouldn’t have stayed on the bed with us and them both. He barely tolerated Frank and I up there. For that matter, I’m not sure I could have handled two adults, a grampa beagle, and three squirmy puppies in one queen-sized bed. It’s all fun and games until someone ends up on the floor on the butt in the middle of the night.
This time tomorrow, everything changes. Still can’t wait.
By the way, I still have many photos from the last visit, week 5, to post on Flickr. Just haven’t had a chance to do it yet. I will do that tomorrow before we go to the vet for the big to-do.
Almost Time
The boys are coming home Thursday afternoon for good. Should be quite an evening. One of their two sisters, Isabella, went to her forever home this afternoon, and now it’s Feargal, Fergus, and Fredrik time. Jasmine’s status hasn’t quite been determined yet.
We meet them at the vet’s at 3:40, then after an exam, etc., and a talk with the Doc (who is also Bayley’s last vet), we bring them home. The beagles get their first Jeep ride. It’s only maybe three minutes, unlike the two hours Bayley experienced when we brought him home, but still, we’ll see if they exhibit any anti-car problems or if, like their daddy, they love riding around.
After that, the adventure begins. Holy cow, this will be something!
One More Week Until P-Day?
Got an e-mail tonight from the Beagle Lady and she tells us that the puppies are enjoying moving into solid food. I’m sure Ginger Beagle is enjoying it especially, since she won’t have to feed the hungry crew much longer. We’re also told the boys are doing well and continuing to get “big and strong and oh so cute.”
She also tells us that Feargal is “not whining much, and seems more adventuresome,” which is good news. On the last two visits, he was an _extremely whiny beagle, and was also kind of shy and timid and tentative. Fergus was more dominant, climbing and walking around, poking his nose in things, being curious and being quiet. Feargal had us a bit worried. So, it’s nice to hear that he’s pulling it together. Maybe he’s a late bloomer.
We’ve noticed that Fred is always quiet and dignified dog; he just sits or lies and looks around very solemnly. So his name, part of which means “peaceful,” is very appropriate. I’m very curious to see what happens with him.
We’re thinking of bringing the boys home even earlier, although it could be a problem. They have their first visit at the Evil Place (the vet’s office) on 19-Apr. We’ve been planning to bring them home the next day, but why wait? Why not just bring them home directly from the vet’s office? I’m so beagle starved, I’m willing to stay up all night long and listen to puppy crying. If we were just taking one of them home, I probably would wait until week 8 or 12. But the whole point of this venture is that the three of them will have each other for company, and that will make the transition so much smoother. So, bringing them home on Day 42 shouldn’t be too bad. Or those could be famous last words. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, we’re slowly getting ready. I still have lots of puppy proofing to do, we have to buy an appropriate crate, and so on. I bought their food dishes the other day at Petco, now we need little harnesses and leashes.
Golly, just can’t wait! Tonight, it’s almost a physical longing. Has something to do, probably, with missing Bayley Murphy so badly. Dangit, I wasn’t finished with him! He was my boy! Not a day or moment goes by that I don’t think of him. He was such a wonderful, well-behaved, delightful beagle, the perfect companion, my “little bitty baby puppy dawg.”
I imagine he’s gonna be slighly hacked off that we’re bringing three boisterous, noisy, strange little beagles into his house and yard, but I also think he’ll end serving as our benevolent spiritual watch dog, looking over his house and yard and watching the puppies, keeping them safe. They would have loved their big brotha Bayley; it adds to the sadness in our hearts that they weren’t able to meet him. But I can’t change the past; I can only prepare to make the future what I want it to be. And the Boys are an integral part of that.
One more week …
Ruh-roh
Just got an e-mail from the puppies’ place. The nice lady writes that it looks like the puppies have “nearly doubled in size” since we saw them last Sunday.
Oh, lord. What have we I done?
New Pookies
We bought the boys’ first toys last Saturday:
Three pookies, one from St. Patrick’s Day, one from Easter, and one regular “Loofah” pookie. Each of the beagles will have a pookie, although I doubt very much that each will stick to one pookie and leave the others alone.
We also bought a mini-tennis ball launcher and six mini-tennis balls. Scent hounds that they are, beagles aren’t really into the fetch thing after they reach two or three—or at least that’s what happened with Bayley—, so we’ll see how long this lasts. Should be fun for at least awhile.
Can’t wait to see the boys again on Sunday and see how they’ve grown during the week. The first six months see rapid growth in beagles, and I’m sure these guys are no different. Gonna enjoy the very fleeting puppy phase as long as I can.
Still not sure about exactly how to handle bringing them home in May. I have to teach and it will be a month before I can stay home with them on a daily basis. I can at least come home at lunch for a very brief period, and they may to stay in their tent in the meantime. I will also try to devise a playpen of some sort so that they have a little more room and maybe a training pad and then they can also have their kennel and tent. I am thankful for the tile floors … they’ll be easy to clean up the inevitable mistakes in the first few months. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to sleep downstairs with them during that first weekend. Still, getting to see them every Sunday between now and then should help smooth things along.
Can’t wait ’til they come home. I sorely miss having a beagle in my life.