Sorry, please allow me this indulgence.
Someone once said that the closest you can ever get to God is when a stray animal comes to stay with you.
Robie, the dog in the picture just showed up one day and has since refused to leave. He’s a great dog.
Do you have a good story about a dog that you found on the street, but who ended up becoming your most trusted ally?
Blog de Ford 
What a fine looking canine. I have no such story, I’m sorry to say. But one time, when I was a young child, my mom sent me out into the neighborhood with a piece of lunch meat to lure our wayward dog back home and I ended up being chased home by a pack of hungry dogs!
Well, there was Jake. He was really my sister’s dog, but he became a member of the family here when she moved here. She’d been living on The Farm in TN for about a year, and Jake got abandoned by a family nearby. They moved everything including the trailer they lived in, but they left Jake behind. Jake and my sister became best friends and when she came back to NY and moved in with the family she brought him along. We worried how he’d adjust. He was used to open fields and freedom and now he’d be confined to a house and yard. No problem at all. Air conditioning. Carpet to lie on. Regular meals. He loved it and you could tell how happy he was. He became best friends with my dog and when she died of old age he was very depressed. Then we got a young dog and he perked up and took her under his paw. He played tug of war with her. He taught her how to catch flies. They were very close. They’re both gone now, and I still miss them both.
Laura, ha! Where were you living at the time?
Your story is a great visual!
Thanks, Zen. Jake sounds like a great dog – and I love that he moved on into a comfortable retirement.
I love how these beasts end up becoming important members of our families.
I presently have a beagle that I rescued back in August. I had been contemplating getting a dog for some time, and had picked one out at a local rescue shelter. I went to see this dog, and came across another one when I was there. The second dog seemed so badly like she just needed a good, quiet home, and she seemed to have such a sad soul. I was a complete sucker for her.
So, I adopted the second dog. Being a beagle, she was more than likely abandoned by hunters at the end of hunting season, which is a real problem in parts of Virginia. She was found by a good samaritan in a rural county just outside of Richmond who picked her up and took her to the rescue group.
I’ve had her for several months now. She is coming along with socialization, but is still very timid and frightened of anyone new. She still suffers from separation anxiety and will shred magazines when I’m out of the house. Her favorite place to go to the bathroom seems to be my oriental rugs. She slops water all over the kitchen floor. It’s next to impossible to keep her off the furniture.
But I love her as much as anything in the world and can only hope that I can clean up after her for many, many years to come.
In response, the “chased by a pack of hungry dogs” incident took place on the south side of Indy.
Have you kept this pup? I venture to ask if you are seeking a home for him. Well?
And I should have mentioned – Robie is a handsome boy!!
GB, thanks for your observation of Robie.
And more importantly, congrats on your beagle. She sounds like a great but neurotic dog, but most of us are also great, yet neurotic as well.
I’m sure she is grateful to be in a loving home now.
(BTW, I didn’t know that beagle-dumping was a problem in VA. In what way do they use the dogs for hunting?)
NRL, yeah, Robie is still here, 2.5 years later. He seems really happy and is the most lovable dog ever.
Given his intelligence and sweet temperament, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would ever let him go, but when I first took him to the vet, I was told that poor Robie was pooing leaves — he was that hungry when he was on his own.
And now, he just seems to be happy in a home where he is treated well and gets lots of protein in his diet.
It’s my understanding that they are used for hunting to pick up the scent of something – beagles are apparently noses on four legs. The truly amusing aspect of it is that it seems that that would require some activity, and Payton is about the laziest dog on the planet.
Apparently, a lot of these assholes just dump the dogs at the end of hunting season so they don’t have to feed them in the off-season or just turn them loose when they are too old for hunting. This is probably what happened to her, which is very sad to contemplate. I’m sure her timid nature is due to years of abuse and neglect (my vet estimates she is about 4), and it just breaks my heart to think about that.
Thanks, GB. I didn’t know that about beagles and their use as hunting dogs.
But rather than abandon those dogs, why don’t the hunters at least take them to the Humane Society?