Andrews Family

This afternoon, while we were playing in the front yard, we spotted a beagle loose in the neighborhood. We watched a girl a few houses down try to get his attention but he wasn’t interested in her. Being a dog person, I like to help out stray dogs and contact their owners if they are wearing tags. So I sent the girls in the house and had Red speak (bark) a couple of times to get his attention. Sure enough he came over looking to play. This guy had a collar but no tags. He was cute and bounced side to side and then spun in a tight circle trying to get Red to play, but he wasn’t interested in me. It didn’t take too long, though, before I got Red to coax him over near me. By then Livy had escaped the house and Jenny followed her out just in time to see me gently slip my hand behind him and grasp his collar. The instant he felt the slightest bit of pressure on his collar he lost it. The playful beagle turned into a snarling beast. I was prepared for this, but Jenny and Livy weren’t. Livy knew something was wrong and started crying while Jenny grabbed the dog mace off the back of the stroller and asked if she should mace him. We had a full fledged circus on our hands. I could just imagine my loving yet paniced wife inadvertly macing her entire family while the beagle gnawed my arm off. Not losing focus on the task at hand, I quickly picked him up off the ground by his collar so he couldn’t get leverage to turn and bite me and replied, “No thankyou!” to the dog mace. Luckily, she wasn’t trigger happy and they just stood back in shock. He wasn’t that big of a dog so I knew I could handle him, but handling a stray dog who is displaying an aversion to people isn’t advised. I got him into our portable kennel and we both survived unscathed. Then we moved him out to the end of the driveway where Livy used her sidewalk chalk to write “Lost Dog” with a little help from Mom. Between his people aversion, not having any tags, our neighbors saying they’d seen him around loose for the last month or so, and his smell I’m pretty sure he’s been on his own for a while. You’ve also got to wonder if he belongs to someone when he has a collar and no tags. But I always say that if for some reason Red was loose without her collar and tags that I’d be happy if someone took her to Town Lake Animal Shelter. They accept lost and unwanted pets 24 hours a day and at least I’d know that she was safe and somewhere I could find her. They even let you search their current found pets online - it’s kind of sad how many they have. When we dropped him off we filled out the form of where he was found so that if someone is looking for him it will be easier to find him. Unfortunately for this guy I don’t think anyone is looking for him. Good luck buddy!