Should have named her "Hoover"

The other day I was wondering where this blog might take me, in terms of subject matter. As I'm writing it primarily for children and friends, before my memory gets worse, I wanted to pick topics that interest me.

Beagles interest me - I've had many in my life, and I remember them fondly. The current incumbent is Millie, and she's ten years old. My daughter brought her into our home a year after we had lost Lucky, and my children remembered prior dogs named Cassie and Fancy. My first beagle was Schautzie, and she jumped through a car window and into my life back in high school.

Beagles live long, generally around fifteen years, so over my adult lifetime I've been honored with the presence of five lovely bitches, who've shared my home and mostly slept in their own beds unless it was very cold during those Iowa years. I remarked that our current girl, Millie, might have better been named Hoover, as she always has her nose to the ground and is willing to suck up anything she finds there. It's also been said there's a vacuum between her ears, but that's just unkind talk - she's very smart and has me well trained.

Millie is spoiled, as once might surmise. She is the only dog I know who has her own Corvette, as we traded in our 2001 convertible for a 2004 coupe so that Millie would have a place to sit behind the driver and passenger in the "crew chief" position. She makes four 1100 mile trips each year to and from Missouri, and never has gotten carsick. Her first car trip was to visit our son at college and from those puppy years (first ride at maybe 10 weeks old) she looks forward to travel. Packing a Corvette isn't easy if you have lots to move, but Millie is priority one in terms of comfort. This Christmas I was given a tee-shirt which read "she's not my pet, I'm her human". It pretty much said it all.