We had an exciting time this morning. One of the beagle breeders we’d contacted through the Scottish Beagle Club site invited us to come see a two and a half week old litter of 10 pups. With such a large litter, she said we’d be pretty much assured to get one of the female pups after Christmas, though we wouldn’t get our pick of the litter since we were pretty much at the end of the waiting list. That all sounded fine to us, so we jumped into the car and headed straight over.

Now everybody knows puppies are seriously cute, but still nothing prepared me for the sight of 10 sleepy little pups all piled up on top of one another. The cute-o-meter swung even further to the right when one of them rolled over onto his back in the throws of a doggy dream. But all that was nothing compared to how amazing it feels to hold one of those tiny, trusting bundles in your own hands.

The pups’ mother was on hand to meet us, though in classic beagle fashion she seemed much more interested in food. In fact it was up to the pups to get themselves out of the way when mum was looking for a comfortable position to consume her chewy stick. I suppose the sudden appearance of ten new babies would be enough to leave anyone feeling in need of comfort food.

All the beagles we saw at the breeders home lived up to what we’d read about the breed: happy, outgoing and affectionate dogs, with plenty of character and a tendency toward mischief. This left us in no doubt that we’d chosen the right kind of dog, and now it was just up to the breeder to make sure that we were the right people to own a beagle.

As expected the breeder wanted to make sure that we’d got a decent garden for our little chum, and fully appreciated the beagle’s penchant for escape attempts and “selective hearing” when on the trail of an interesting scent. She seemed satisfied that we’d done our homework and would be able to give our dog the attention and care it deserves.

So as things stand now we can be pretty sure we’ve seen our future family member, we just don’t know which one yet! That question should be answered in a few weeks once the breeder has decided which pups she’s keeping. That’s fine by me, in fact I’m kind of glad the decision has been taken out of our hands – how do you choose one from ten equally gorgeous little furballs?