It was cold yesterday yet surprisingly sunny – ideal conditions for two young Beagles looking for chases and interesting sniffs.

Biggles’ red jacket (a hand-me-down from his big sister) was still wet from the previous day so he had to go out wearing only his birthday suit, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold at all. Unfortunately for me, his birthday suit is predominantly white, so I had to keep my eyes pinned on him in case he managed to hide himself amongst all the frozen foliage.

Beanie of course was somewhat easier to spot..

Kirby doing an impressive wolf impersonation

For some reason the icy conditions made Beanie more interested in toys, and she spent quite a bit of time just bounding around with a tennis ball she er… “borrowed” from Zak and Amber.

They say “what goes around comes around”, and before the end of the walk Zak “borrowed” Beanie and Biggles’ treats. He wiggled his snout into my pocket and made off with the treat bag. I figured he was just going to snaffle all the food but he went one better and swallowed the whole bag before I or anyone else could get it off him. After all the worry we’ve had over Beanie’s swallowing stunt I’m just hoping that the bag (minus the treats of course) will turn up in one of Zak’s future deposits in the Poo Bank. I think it will – Zak is a very big boy.

Beanie and Biggles – particularly Biggles – didn’t seem the least bit concerned about Zak though. For them, it was all about the treats, or lack thereof.

OK I’m sitting – where’s the treat?

Fortunately I had just enough emergency rations left in my pocket to get the two of them on lead and back to the car.

The last two days Beanie & Biggles have been out on park walks together, and it really seems to be helping to cement their relationship with one another and with us. This morning however we gave Biggles a mentally stimulating lead walk, allowing Beanie to have a traditional, full-length romp in the park.

Of course when we were all back home together they went straight back to their naughty ways and had a series of noisy tiffs over toys, attempted humpings and their uncooperative bed (sometimes it’s just not comfy and needs a good telling off)!

Anyway, here’s a couple of short video clips from Beanie’s park session this morning. The first is the tail end (no pun intended) of a long chase with Amber, Kirby and Honey:

The second is a mammoth tug of war between Honey and Beanie. Guess who eventually won!

Beanie finally had her staples removed yesterday. The vet gave her the green light for all activies (or at least those that don’t involve eating another cart-load of stomach-filling blue/green plastic) so this morning the four of us headed out to the park. The unfortunate timing of Beanie’s op meant that this would be the very first time they’d be offlead together outside of our garden.

Both of them were very eager to get to the field, but once there they stayed surprisingly calm and well-behaved as we headed to the usual gathering place. That didn’t last for long though. After a brief sniff-around, Beanie suddenly took off on a mad sprint round and round the field, leaving poor little Biggles squealing as he tried and failed to keep up.

It was obviously very, very good to be back!

Once she’d burned off some of that pent up energy, she had a little play with Biggles…

then the two of them went to greet their chums Zak, Amber and Kirby. Kirby’s mum was still nursing bruises from yesterday’s collision with a certain Golden Retriever..

Robbie scores another strike!

..but she still managed to bring a horde of squeaky toys. Unfortunately one of them was not long for this world. The pink bikini-clad chicken was hung, drawn and quartered by Zak and Amber and left the park in a body bag. Actually, it was a poo bag but you get the idea.

While Beanie got down to the obligatory chasing, Biggles went over to introduce himself to another regular face at the park, Rannoch.

Rannoch’s a handsome, well-behaved boy but he didn’t seem keen to surrender his squeaky Christmas pud to our spoilt little Bigglet, despite repeated woofings. He did let Biggles join in a three-way play fight with Amber though.

Just as we were about to leave the park Bella and Baxter arrived, bringing the Beagle count to four. We let Biggles off lead one more time to have a little play with them. There’s no doubt that Bella, Beanie and Biggles have a natural affinity with each other..

..though they all get on well with Baxter too. He’s a really handsome Beagle, but somehow he always manages to dodge my camera. Maybe next time!