Just a bit more Ripley, for his fans everywhere

I took a lot of pictures at the dog park on Saturday morning. Ripley was in some, not in others, and in some cases I thought he was in a picture, but was wrong - he's that fast.
In these pictures, he's perfecting his ballet moves - the three point stance (you though he was just lifting his leg), and another picture is his Farrah Fawcett impression, where he flips his ears (work with me, here) around. The other picture shows one of the "adopt me" beagles checking out Ripley. Those beagles auditioning for new owners wear yellow scarves, which read "adopt me". They were of course the majority of dogs present, but many dogs like Ripley are graduates of the program, and have come back to run with the pack. Ripley wore both his collar and his harness, just in case he ran too far with the pack and escaped. He's got such a smooth coat, it would be like trying to catch a greased pig, so he wore all of his gear should I have to run and catch him. Of course, that assumes I could catch him, and also begs the question "is there a doctor in the house" once I did catch him.

The top photo is that of Homer, "the pirate", who is a very old beagle who lost an eye, and has appeared on the web wearing an eye patch and a pirate hat. Homer jumped into my wife's lap at one point, trying his best to get somebody to read his scarf and adopt him. Homer also has a "docked" tail, just why somebody early in his life (before he was rescued) did that to him is unknown. Beagles, which were originally bred for hunting, have a white tip to their tale, known as a "flag". Poor Homer the Pirate, his flag has been struck, and his tail has been docked, and his original owners cast him adrift. He is the ultimate rescued sailor, but now lives with hope that somebody will adopt him and give him a "fur ever" home.

Ripley today is entertaining Sassy, our son's dog, and will spend Super Bowl Sunday as an overnight guest while our son does the young people thing. Sassy has just now destroyed a very old Millie toy. I'll present my son with a bill if the carnage gets too extreme. Ripley is holding his own, naturally.