Friday, December 22, 2006

The Gift of the Veteran

What does a big brother get his little brothers for Christmas?
What could possibly top anything the parental units had been
planning, or anything the young'uns had been asking for, such
as the Wii, or a computer? What, I ask you...WHAT?

This.














An itty bitty purebred Beagle, with papers and the works.
According to the Veteran, his mother was a trial champion,
and his father was a field champion.

LOOK! He has already flushed out a leaf on the garage floor!














His name is Tank, because of the "T" shape on this shoulders.
And because the Veteran no doubt wanted a military name
for him. He has kept him for two nights in his house, and now
the poor little thing is in for a rude awakening penned up in
the garage all night. He'll be OK. He has 4 cats to keep him
company.

The other dogs, Grizzly and Ann, had mixed reactions. Grizzly
sniffed him up and down, and seemed quite interested. This is
the most interest he's shown in another critter that we've adopted.
He usually turns up his nose and walks away stiff-legged. He IS
half Beagle, so maybe he thinks this is his kin. Ann took one sniff
and ran off. I thought she would be the one to adopt this little
guy and herd him around like she did with the poor departed
Cubby. She didn't much like hearing him whimper in the garage.
She ran to me, then halfway to the garage, then back to me,
whining. Perhaps she was just playing charades, and Lassie
was telling me that Timmy fell down a well.














I'm not sure what possessed the Veteran to give the boys such
a tremendous gift. He's very much into hunting and fishing and
outdoorsy stuff. I imagine he will come home to train Tank in
rabbit-chasing, or whatever such champions do. We will love
him and feed him and get the rest of his shots and promise not
to get him 'The Operation', and all parties will benefit.

The boys LOVE him. We are getting him a little pen tomorrow,
but he will run with the big dogs when he's old enough to take
care of himself. That's the advantage of living in the middle of
nowhere.

5 comments:

Chickadee said...

He's ADORABLE!!! Look at those little ears.

I like his name. That's too cute.

Cazzie!!! said...

Aww he is oh so cute and my kids all want one of them now :)

LanternLight said...

What a lovely dog!

Does he have an official name that you can share?

I think they look the cutest when they're working around the airport.

Melina said...

so cute! I want him! *cue whining* Lucky sons!

Hillbilly Mom said...

Chick,
I must agree. He grunts like a little pig when we hold him, and he has a bad case of puppy breath.

Cazzie,
Of course your kids want a Beagle puppy. A Beagle puppy is the new Razr, you know. Every kid must have one.

Lantern,
I don't know if he has an offical name. The Veteran left the papers at his house on base, and only brought the shot record. I don't know what little Tank's mom & pop names were, so I don't know what sort of official name he might or might not have.

I saw one on that Airline TV show, with his little vest to show he was officially on the job. It's no wonder they are used for that work, what with their great sniffers.

Melina,
You can't have him! My boys would cry, and track you down, and waggle their index fingers in your face, chanting "You very, very bad girl, Ms. Melina," like that Babu character on Seinfeld, when Jerry caused him to lose all his customers by switching to Pakistani cuisine at his restaurant, or to be deported because Jerry did not give him his letter to renew his visa in time.