Beanie had her sixteenth birthday a few days ago and showed that she is still a little madam in full possession of her marbles.
As part of her birthday celebration she received lots of nice edibles: homemade biccies, doggy cupcakes and a special meal. This all went down very well, but it also went to her head.
As is often the case Beanie was highly dissatisfied when the menu returned to normal, and promptly went on a hunger strike. The look on her face when I put a bowlful of common kibble under her nose spoke volumes: “Oh no Dad, princess Beagles don’t eat that muck. Where’s my breakfast pupcake and chicken dinner?”
We’re sufficiently versed in Beanie’s little ways that we were able to stand firm and break her hunger protest after only one missed meal; to be fair it probably helped that three other Beagles were very happily and noisily tucking into their regular food around her while she abstained. Though beaten over the food she still tried some other Beanie-isms on us, including that old classic, the morning bed grab routine. For bed-loving Beagles who don’t know this one, here’s how it goes, and as Mr Miyagi said in The Karate Kid movie: “if do right, there can no defence”.
- Sound the “Beagle needs the toilet” red alert until one of the humies leaves their bed to open your crate. You don’t have to woof for this one; pawing at the crate door slowly, pathetically and relentlessly can work just as well.
- Make a show of following them, then while they’re busy turning off the alarm and unlocking the door to the garden, quickly double-back and take their place in the bed before they realize what’s really going on.
- If there’s still a residual humie in the bed, simply stretch out, keeping your arms and legs as stiff as iron pokers, until the humie moves to accommodate you. Then just move and repeat until the humie is cramped into such an uncomfortable position that they too vacate the bed.
Note that step #2 above becomes much more difficult when you’re sixteen and slow, and the only way you can get into the humie bed is to clamber up the steps they’ve installed for you; nevertheless it can still be done especially if the other Beagles in the house have helped by leaving chews and toys on the floor to mess with those soft, delicate humie feet.
So she may be sixteen and a bit infirm, but she is still very much the naughty little pupplet who came to live with us all those years ago.
