Beauty Dog

There’s an empty bed in our house, it is small and placed on the floor next to my wife’s side of our bed. When all was quiet in the night, you could hear Beauty breathing in her little bed. She was the first one to head upstairs to her bed when the night grew long. She was also the first one up and ready for her breakfast when the day began, sometimes too early.

My job was to feed her in those early hours and let her outside to use the bathroom. She would “howl” for her breakfast, if I didn’t fill her bowl fast enough. Sometimes, when I was missing her, I would wait and ask if she was hungry. She always was and she told me so. I’d smile and sometimes even laugh, then fill her bowl. Beauty was a Beagle so she, like most Beagles, loved to eat. She was always looking for food, even right after a meal.

Beauty loved everyone, and would bark once or twice when anyone entered her house. She wasn’t announcing their arrival, she was asking them to feed her a treat. Every regular visitor soon learned to feed Beauty a treat before greeting any of the family. She even had me trained to give her a treat when I left the house, she knew my soft spots. We reduced the size of her treats over the years as she was consuming more and more each day. And I don’t think the size really mattered, just the treat itself.

One of Beauty’s favorite activities was going for a walk and she really loved the woods. We called it going for a “Walk in the Trees”. She always got really excited to go for a walk in the trees and also along the beach when we visited the ocean. She would walk mostly with her nose to the ground smelling all the great smells. I don’t think her nose was as powerful as most Beagles, as I’ve seen her walk past a bunny, not four feet away. But she didn’t care.

Beauty was happiest to be around her family (we called us “Her Pack”) and she would always find someone to snuggle with or sit with. The past few years, Sandi was her favorite as Sandi was home part of the day, while I was at work. Sandi and Beauty would cuddle on the coach or go for walks. At night, Beauty would bound into our bed and slip in between us, forcing her way in if needed. Then she would stretch out her legs and push me away to give herself some room. She would then proceed to doze off and even snore a little. We always wondered how she could go to sleep so quickly.

We found Beauty at breeder when she was around eight weeks old. The breeder had a small liter of puppies and only the girls were left. Our kids played with all the puppies and Alex, my son, chose Beauty since she had come over to him and didn’t seem shy or scared. Jacqui, my daughter, agreed with Alex, so Beauty was chosen and given her name by Jacqui. Alex thought her name should be Lightning, since she has a white splash on her that looked like lightning.

Alex and Jacqui grew up with Beauty and Beauty grew up with them. Beauty was always part of our house and she was always happy and excited to see anyone from her pack. When Jacqui left to attend college, Beauty took to sleeping with Alex in his bed. When Alex left for college she moved into our room, where she stayed.

Beauty passed away two weeks ago today, on August 17,2018. She will be dearly missed but will live on in our hearts and souls.

Below are a few photos of Beauty taken over the years, she was a great model and was always very interested in which camera I was using.

Cheers,

Wade