March 28: The Beagles

If only I were going to be writing about 4 dogs from Liverpool that could produce a multitude of #1 songs! I'm not, of course. That would be ludicrous. But, we did have a pair of regular old beagles visit us today. An unplanned visit, but what the heck we rolled with it. The family had just sat down to begin dinner when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something moving through the backyard. Upon a closer look, I realized they were beagles sniffing around the yard and heading East...right towards Schoenherr. For those of you who may not know, Schoenherr is a rather busy road all day, every day. And, the combination of stray dogs and speeding vehicles does not usually result in a happy ending. So I went out on the patio and attempted to call them over. First using only a whistle, sweet talk and my charming disposition towards canines. Eventually, however, I had to get food involved. These two were tough cookies as they didn't even blink when offered dog treats, rather it took a slice of ham to finally capture their interest. I used it to lure them into the dog pen. Unfortunately, the fence doesn't reach the ground at the bottom and both dogs proceeded to crawl underneath. Plan B! I brought both dogs into the house, locked them up in the laundry room and called the number on one of the dog's tag. Of course, the number is unlisted and we got the messaging system. After leaving a message, I phoned the local authorities to see if they could take them off our hands. Unfortunately, the dispatcher could not guarantee that the local Humane Society would continue calling the number on the tag and we certainly didn't want the dog's to meet their fate after just essentially rescuing them. And, we did not have a Plan C at this time; though my wife was committed to holding the dogs until someone returned our call. While trying to still enjoy dinner while our dog barked at the laundry room door and the two beagles howled back, my wife remembered a house we pass on the way to my daughter's school that always has beagles in the backyard. Could these be those same beagles? I didn't know but I was sure as hell going to find out...and fast! The thought of listening to that howling throughout the night was not appealing one bit. Now, this isn't the first time I've helped dogs find their way back home. I learned from the best. As a kid, my Mom was always welcoming in strays, and I usually was right there assisting her. But, this was the first time I'd ever gone so far as to get in my car and follow a potential lead directly to the possible owner. I didn't even know what I was going to do once arriving at this particular house! Luckily, as I was pulling up to the address my wife phoned me to let me know that the owner called back and was on his way to our house to get the dogs. So I did a quick U-turn and headed back home just in time to meet the owner in the driveway. In the end, the dogs found their way home, the owner could rest easy having them back, and my family could get some sound sleep minus beagles howling into the wee hours of the morn.