See DH found a great ad for an early 1970’s Technics amplifier and when he went to pick it up, the man practically forced us to take a faux Stickley chair that his dog had chewed up the arm on…Well as DH was repairing the arm, he kept missing our Darwin who passed due to cancer in September. He had said he didn’t want to go puppy shopping until spring since training in the winter is not easy. But fixing the chewed on arm led to visiting the Pets section of the classifieds and looking at beagles. Christmas puppies start showing up the first week of January and there were two beagles in the county south of us. We called on both and decided to check out the one furthest away. We had trouble at the ATM and couldn’t get any cash and I knew that one of the couples wouldn’t take a check but we pressed on south. There we found our Jach. He was 11 weeks old and their baby was horribly allergic to him. While we were deciding, the baby woke up and the father used Go-Jo to clean all the skin showing, changed his shirt and then fixed the baby bottle. I knew we had to take the puppy if only to save that family. This couple was willing to take a check and we took Jach, his crate, his toys and a bag of dog food.

Then we went to look at the 2nd dog. Now I should tell you, my daughter is a zookeeper and we have yet to meet an animal that doesn’t love her (except the Swans but that’s another story) or love her father. This 2nd beagle was supposedly the same age as Jach but looked a good 4-5 weeks older and growled at all of us – even DH and L. Jach took one look at him and bolted for the car. We thanked the people for letting us look at him explained we didn’t have any cash after getting Jach and we would be in touch but we knew we didn’t want it in our house and we wouldn’t be back.

And DH keeps cruising the classifieds because beagles belong in a brace. They are pack animals and want to be together. He keeps showing me pictures of a cute female but I don’t do female dogs. After all, I’m the only b**ch allowed in this pack. He points out how she looks so similar to Jach and Bo would work as a girl’s name. So I tell him if he wants to buy her he has to make the call, I’m not doing this one. He calls and leaves a message for the owner.

A few days pass and the owner calls back. She says that the parents are champions and the little girl was the first of the litter sold but had to be returned since the buyer’s housing fell through. He asked if the price was fixed or if there was room for negotiation. She said it could be negotiated for the right family and would he tell her about us. He told her how we had always had dogs and had lost our beagle in September after 12 years. We had recently picked up a male beagle pup in Spanish Fork and he was 12 weeks that day and we wanted to get him a companion. She surprised us and said, “You got him from a family where the baby is allergic?” DH said, “Yes, how did you know?” She says, “My husband talked to L about the medical records, this is his sister from the litter.” She immediately gave us 15% off the price and made us promise to get one spayed or neutered as soon as possible to prevent issues.

So we have our brace of beagles and they’re siblings like we wanted except we have a boy and a girl instead of a set of brothers but they’re still adorable and we love them and they play well together.

Jach and Bo on her first day home with us.

It’s so good to have a dog in the house again.