Brian the beagle, our boy

I’ve not really mentioned Brian much. Shame on me. So, on the eve of his six month “birthday” it’s only right I should write a little something about our chap – or “the boy” as we affectionately refer to him.

First, a little back-story.

We’ve long talked of getting a puppy. We have both grown up with dogs in our lives, but neither of us have had a dog of our own as adults – they’d always been family pets until now.

It’s also been a question of when to get a dog. We decided that as neither of us work in the conventional 9-5 sense, now would be perfect as we’d have plenty of time to give any dog the attention it needed.

We did decide, though, that we’d get a dog at a time and from a place that was right. It was therefore for me a bit of a surprise when in the week after Christmas 2009 I got a call from Jennifer who was at the mall. She was in love, pure and simple. She’d been passing the local Barkworks and had seen the cutest beagle puppy in the history of beagle puppies (according to Jennifer).

For the record, we know that it’s “wrong” to get puppies from stores in the mall. They are overpriced and can come from less than reputable sources. Barkworks have had their fair share of knockers and for good reason.

However, love transcends these boundaries. Once Jennifer had seen the puppy and the smart salesman had put them in a room together, it was just a matter of time before the plastic came out of her wallet.

So, that day “Brian” came home with his new Mommy to his home and to meet Daddy. Of course, we loved him from the very beginning. We also pledged to be good parents to him for the rest of his natural.

We did experience some anxiety after a couple of weeks about whether we had been too hasty. Dogs are a different commodity after all – he’s not an LCD tv or laptop. We felt that it was a “big commitment” and he’d brought about the “end of our lives as we know them”.

Yes, I know – reality check. We should try a human baby if we want to start talking about major commitments. Hey, humour us – Brian was a big commitment for us.

Time has flown since getting Brian. In such a short time he’s now almost fully grown. He’s still a handful at times, but is a good natured, loving beagle. We chuckle when we think back just a few short months when we seriously wondered if we’d made a big mistake.

We can’t imagine life without Brian, and when we take him as a treat to his favourite place on earth – day care at Anaheim’s Camp Bow Wow – he is in beagle utopia.

Happy 6-month-birthday, boy. Looking forward to your first proper birthday.