After a few months of NOT having a dog (and not planning to get a new dog) I
had a change of heart. I can't say I had a very valid reason for wanting
one. The house just felt empty without a fur ball around. Luckily
my husband knows when I'm not going to give up on an idea so he humored me and
agreed to go look at dogs.
After checking out available beagles on petfinder.com, I found this guy at
the
Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation. Here's what their
website said about him:
Sampson is 5 years old and 25 pounds. Sampson is a gentle, quiet and
sweet beagle. He is friendly with dogs and people and very gentle with
children. Sampson enjoys sniffing in the grass, walks with his humans
and plenty of nap time. He will make a wonderful family pet.
Who could resist that write up and those brown eyes? Not this
gal. So off we went to meet him at PetSmart. And after meeting him
we just had to bring him home. Turns out he's a really sweet guy.
He loves the kids -- even Colin (who pulls on his ears and gives him hugs that
a less-friendly dog wouldn't dig on). He's mellow. He doesn't make
much noise (except for the snoring, but that's cute). He chases the
squirrels off of Phil's bird feeders in the backyard. He wags his tail
and asks for belly rubs. And every day he makes sure that he's
still not
allowed on the sofa. Apparently one can never be sure when that rule will
expire so it's prudent to test it out every day.
The shelter gave him the name "Sampson" when they found him
wandering in the wilderness of West Virginia, so we didn't feel too bad about
renaming him. He shall henceforth be known as Clyde. Isn't that
much better than Sampson? Yeah, I'm not sure it's better, either, but
that's what happens when I let Phil have naming rights. Claire picked the
middle name "Patrick" and Madeline thought he should retain
"Sampson" as part of his name. So he is "Clyde Patrick
Sampson Shea". But he's not a fancy dude so he usually just goes by
"Clyde".
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| He likes to sniff the backyard. A lot. |
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| Trying to find a place to escape |
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| Is there a dog on the other side of this fence? |
