An Incredibly Eventful Weekend

Charlie and Rusty

You can say many things about a beagle but dull is never one of them! This weekend Charlie has been so busy I have barely been able to keep up.

 Saturday morning began as it always does, tea in bed with Charlie, but Charlie disappeared under the bed. He was far too quiet so I had to check out what he was up to. Low and behold Charlie had found a sock to chew and was merrily munching away. Not only that but when I stuck my head under my bed he started to howl at me as if I was intruding his space!

Since the weather was so lovely we walked the mile or so to see my horse Fleur. Charlie walked on his lead with me and when I was working Fleur in the arena I tied him to the fence in the shade where I could see him. I had put his harness on so that I could clip him to that and not his collar; all very sensible I thought.  Everything was going swimmingly, Fleur was being good, Charlie was being good, other than the constant howling in objection to being tied up and not allowed to run free but I am happy with small victories! We then started to walk back to Fleurs field together; a picture of the English countryside.  Horse, Hound and Sunshine. But I hadn’t clipped the lead back onto Charlie’s collar and he doesn’t like to walk on his harness so we performed a very good stop and sit so I could switch over. He was even doing a very good wait until Fleur put her nose down to sniff him. He jumped a metre to his left and then realised he was free!  Within 10 seconds his naughty Jack Russell Friend had appeared - he must have a special 6^th sense for knowing when Charlie has got loose. They were gone. Full gallop across the field, into the woods and across the Wheat field. I have lost Charlie enough times now to know that there is no point chasing him. I shouted, I called, I walked away but he was having too much fun. So off I walked, lead in hand, to tell my neighbour that our dogs had gone M.I.A.

Luckily I have very lovely neighbours; I had an appointment that I had to go to so Diana went to look for the pesky pups. About three hours later I got a call to say that they had been found chasing rabbits at the neighbouring farm and that Diana would put Charlie into my garden to wait for me. Charlie has a kennel, lots of shade and water so he was fine to wait for me there. From this picture I think he knows that he should not have run off!

Sunday morning whilst I was busy upstairs, Charlie decided to do a little redecorating and took some of the cushions into the garden. I am not sure why he has struck this pose but he was like this when I went into the garden and sat like it for quite some time.

After replacing the soft furnishings where they came from we went to visit my mum for a quick cuppa. I am always careful to shut the door behind me when I come into the kitchen before I let Charlie off his lead. We were chatting away when mum noticed that the front door was open. Before I could move Charlie spotted it too and was off. Straight across the field of cows to get as mucky as possible. My quick cup of tea ended up being a 3 hour stay while I waited for Charlie to come back from his adventure. He always comes home eventually but I worry so much that he will get stolen or cause an accident. As per usual he was filthy and stinking so had to have a bath before I took him to my works Family Fun Day where he caused more mischief!

Obviously being a beagle he barked and howled all the afternoon despite the heat. There is so much going on and he wants to be involved in all of it! Mostly he had to stay on the lead so he didn’t steal hot dogs off of the children as he has learnt that they are perfect height for him to help himself but I did let him off for 5 minutes when his friend Harry Bear came to play. After a mad dash around the entire area jumping over peoples picninc rugs and under all of the tables and chairs he found one of the bin bags and was apparently head in, rummaging for food, throwing the plastic cups and plates to the side as they got in his way before I spotted him and stopped the binge. He did make a new friend in Rusty but I think that might have a lot to do with the ice cream that he was licking his lips for; he even managed to nip the end off of the cone when no one was looking!

All this in just two days! He sure knows how to fit a lot in! Tonight we have our first Club class at dog school; to say that I am nervous would be an understatement! Please don’t embarrass me, please don’t embarrass me!