Meeting Maggie

a story by My Mommy, Kate

Meet the Beaglet sisters.



We arrived at the breeders on Sunday morning at 10:30am. We had a big decision to make. We had to choose between these two little morsels of puppiness, these cuddly wuddly squirmy little balls of fur.



This wasn't going to be easy.



We held them, we pet them, we squeezed and smelled them, loving them both up until inevitably one of them would say, "pick me!"



Bachelorette Number One, left, was a floppy little girl with legs that sprawled out like Bambi when you put her down on the couch. Bachelorette Number Two, the runt, was a bit more energetic and svelt, her skin fitting just so whereas floppy girl seemed to be swimming in hers. Both displayed satisfactory Beagle behaviors such as walking with nose to the ground just as a hound should do. At only 4 weeks old!



Andrew's nose got a lot of attention.



After about an hour of "hot potato" passing of the pups between one another we had to make a decision. Our breeder even got up to do a load of laundry at one point when she realized that we weren't going to be quick and easy. When she returned the pressure was on. Something about the little one really had me swooning, despite her different appearance and her very brown markings... I had thought I wanted a puppy like the floppy girl with the white streak up the nose...

The little one was getting antsy while the floppy one was getting sleepy. Andrew held floppy in his jacket and she just started snoozing. Wee one was sniffing all over the couch for some sign of food. Then she sat on her rump, craned up her neck and let out a great mournful little Beagle "Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwoooowowowwwl!" I cracked up. Her little lips pursed in her Beagle cry was just too much. I asked to see floppy one more time and handed the little runt to Andrew. Somewhere in the transistion Andrew's nose became locked in a peculiar location:



This girl did not lick affectionately, she had decided Andrew's nose must be fast food and proceeded to suck, nip, bite and claw at it tenaciously, desperately awaiting for his nostrils to be stimulated into milky action. For a runt she sure seemed to be the more alert, personable and eager one. It seemed that every time I took a picture she looked right at the camera. "This one, we like this one," we told the breeder. At last she went for a color coded collar to place on the chosen one to differentiate her from the crowd (there were 6 boys already chosen and color coded in the pen). I had a choice between a tiny little yellow collar and a itty bitty orange collar. I was about to choose orange when the breeder realized that the orange one was an inch longer than the yellow so we had better give her the yellow, being so small. The collar transformed from a tiny little half inch wide thing to a gigantic necklace when she put it on our pup. And just then a light shone down from heaven...



And our girl looked very, very proud. What a regal Beagle. At that point I knew this little girl was going to be quite a princess. Spunky, feisty and ruler of the world.



And somewhat resembling her new mother? (I think it's in the ears.)

Just three weeks and we take the little nipper home! The weekend of May 15. I think I will need a whole seperate blog for this girl. She's too photogenic. I love her.