A good-natured beagle

From the desk of Kess' Mama:

It's been 8 years since Kess joined our family. Despite the heartaches this beagle has given us, especially in the earlier years with her escapades and destruction to our property and garden, I have to say that our beagle is one good-natured canine. As long as she is with her pack (aka, us, her humans), she is contented.

Any beagle's human will attest that this little hound dog very much has a mind of their own. According to her mood, Kess will be my shadow, following me every where I go in our home.

Kess lying by my work desk

Just as easily, this beagle would ignore me, despite me calling out her name. This means I'll have to search out which corner of our home she's comfortably lying in.

Despite her little idiosyncracies, she is very good-natured, winning the hearts of those who interacts with her. She single-pawedly transformed our "we don't like dogs" neighbour into a dog-loving human, who is now more than happy to dog-sit her. In fact, when we were away and Kess was staying at the Puppy Cottage, our neighbour actually went to visit her at the Cottage, bringing a loaf of bread for our bread-loving canine.

Recently, I was unable to exert myself physically, which meant that I could not take her for walks or feed her. These tasks which are usually done by me had to be taken over by J. Whilst the morning walks and feed are on schedule, her evening routine had to be delayed. Since J works late, our beagle has to wait for him to come back for her evening walk and meal. So, instead of going out for a walk at 6 pm, more often than not, she goes out at 9 pm instead. Now, I've heard about dogs that whine or bark when their routine is disrupted. Not this beagle. She happily hangs out with me, or by herself depending on her mood.

Another classic example: the other day I was busy working in my home office. I heard a door slam shut due to the wind but did not think twice about it. When I had finished for the day, I went looking for my beagle. I opened my bedroom door and there she was sitting patiently near the door entrance. She probably was in the room for an hour or so. She knew that eventually her human would come to the rescue and she waited. Not a bark or a whine from her.

How can I not love my little beagle?