Obviously, this is GOOOOD NEWS! Amazing that it took sooo long to post- I got her back in August! Let me do a re-cap of what's happened since then.

By July, I had finally saved up enough money for a Beagle...unfortunately, even though I'd been volunteering at the shelter for over a month by then, there were no Beagles around! Someone in petsmart suggested going over to the Lancaster shelter because their fees are cheaper and they always heave Beagles. So, we packed up the new-dog supplies and went.

It was nothing short of a hell-hole. Dogs were crammed four and five and even six at a time into cramped living quarters. A smell of urine and fear permeated the air. Flies buzzed everywhere. More thna half the dogs looked sick. I found a couple Beagles I was itnerested in, but it turns out they were both sick. We returned home angry and empty-handed.

After that I was so desperate to see a healthy dog, I returned to the local Beagle breeder. I had seen him about a month before and taken a look at him dogs. They were healthy, happy, and lively, and he ran a clean operation. I hopped on my bike right after we got home and rode over there. I was telling myself I was there 'just to look'...but those tiny puppies had already begun tugging at my heart. He had two 'batches' of puppies at that point- one litter of ten-week-old Tricolors, and another of fifteen-week-olds that had one Tricolor, two Blueticks, and one Lemon. I told him I was interested in seeing the older pups. (the younger ones were far out of my price range and I didn't need a show-quality dog, which those were. The others were to be sold strictly as pets)

As he carried the babies back to their kennel and returned, he held in his arms two of the most hyper puppies I'd ever seen. They were leaps and bounds bigger than the itty-bitty ten-week-olds. Of course they were adorable. Long ears and surprisingly long tails. These were the two blueticks. Next he carried in the tricolor and the Lemon. All four were female.

Now I had a decision to make. The Blueticks had very nice coloring, but I'd dreamed about the classic Tricolor Beagle romping at my side. Then again, that Lemon girl...she was stunning! Light reddish-tan patches were splattered over her mostly-white body. Her ears were so long- the breeder said hers were the longest in the litter. I held and played with all the puppies, but something about that Lemon captured my heart. She was shy at first, but soon rolling around in my lap, knawing my knuckles, and wagging her long tail.

It seemed invitable. I'd made my decision. The breeder went over the sales contract and said I could pick her up either Monday or Tuesday.

The next day I rode home with a wriggling Beagle puppy in my arms and tears in my eyes.

On Monday, August 11, almost two years to the day Annie has been loaded into the truck, I had my baby. My Beagle had come home.