Tonight, as I sat down with beagle number six, Ripley, I got to thinking about all of my dogs going back to my first beagle, Shautzie, and after her came Cassie, Fancy, Lucky, Millie, and now Ripley. Schautzie came to us as a stray, back when I was in high school, and she lived with us in Indianapolis where we shared custody (during the week) with my mother, and on weekends she'd try to push my wife out of bed. Schautzie was a very jealous girl, one who didn't enjoy competition from my wife. Shautzie never lived to see our children, but in 1977 when our son was born, our second beagle Cassie was captured in this photo sharing a bed with me, my new son John Benjamin, and of course, the beagle. Cassie had come into our life during our last Indianapolis apartment before moving into our first home. She was the one who ate the vinyl kitchen apartment flooring, before we knew about keeping bored beagles in a crate while at class and work. After a couple of years in the house on North New Jersey, I took a job in Iowa, and Cassie flew to Des Moines in our first airplane travel crate. Ripley now lives in that same crate, by the way. We peeled off the Ozark Air Lines sticker years ago, however.
When we moved to Des Moines, we purchased Fancy from a pet store, and we had Fancy and Cassie together. Cassie had also been a pet store purchase, but after that time, we never bought a dog from a pet store again. Fancy was the most laid back beagle I ever had. J.B. loved her, and she'd allow him to use her for a pillow. She made a great pillow, and if artist Paul Rubens had painted dogs, she would have been his model.
In 1982 we drove from Des Moines to St. Louis with J.B., two dogs and a cat. It was a long time to be stuck in a small Chevrolet wagon with this collection of dogs, cat, wife and child. On the trip down, I was driving a bit too fast and attracted the attention of a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper. Thinking quickly, I agitated the dogs to start barking by saying "get that cat, get that kitty". They complied, which woke my wife, and five year old J.B. I also yelled at J.B. and told him to "shut up and ignore the cop". He began to cry, so I told him to "shut up" but louder. By this time, my wife started yelling at me while I pulled to the side of the road and rolled down the window. When the cop came alongside, he heard the most unholy noises, with two dogs barking, a cat meowing, a baby crying and a look that could kill on the face of my wife. I made my mea culpas about the speed, but said I was trying to get home before the noise drove me into a ditch. I told him, if you have to write a ticket, please do so but let me get back on the road so I can get the family out of this car. I finished with "hell, a ticket could just make my day, my FIRST day as a resident of your fine state". He said "sir, you already have enough trouble, you don't need a ticket too, but PLEASE slow down.
About five miles down the road, my wife suddenly smiled, looked a me and said "you did all that on purpose, didn't you?" Well, it worked.
Six months later, on Christmas eve in 1982, Cassie ran away during a thunderstorm and despite repeated trips to three different dog pounds, we never found her. Fancy certainly was grieving in addition to wife and child. In the process of looking, and making multiple trips over several weeks, I came upon a beagle puppy that was scheduled to be put down the following Monday. The lady at the pound said nothing could save the dog, unless the owner came and claimed her and paid the fine. I told her "I'm the owner, how much is the fine" and proceeded to dig deep. I came up .50 cents short, and the lady reached into her purse and gave me the final two quarters. That dog, aptly named Lucky, came home to join Fancy.
Fancy lived a full life, but at age eleven her back end went out, and my wife had to take her to the vet to have her put down. Lucky lived to sixteen, before going to dog heaven. By then, my daughter had been born and lived alongside Lucky for most of those sixteen years. When Lucky was no more, Caitlin found a little girl beagle who was part of a recent three dog litter born on acreage out in the countryside, where a high school classmate lived. My wife told Caitlin and me "do not bring this dog home" as we had said "we're only going to look". We brought that dog home and named her Millie. My wife, also known as the animal lady, immediately went to the store to adapt to this development, as we had gone 15 months between dogs and were not prepared for a puppy. My wife is quick to adapt, especially when it comes to me and beagle dogs.
Millie also was with us for eleven years, but was struck down by cancer, and I thought we'd go perhaps a year without a dog, but I couldn't handle it. I wasn't a happy person without a beagle, and thanks to Tampa Bay Beagle Rescue and the Internet, we found our sixth beagle dog, and our first boy. You all know him, as he is the joy of my life. Riply will hopefully be with me for fifteen or so years, and maybe at age 80 I might not want beagle number seven.........but I'll always be a boy and his beagle dog.
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