TheBanyanTree: Beagle on the Run

[Margaret R. Kramer]

It’s wonderful to be bathed in moonlight after being blanketed by clouds for
weeks.  The moon was swimming in fast moving waves of clouds while I was
driving to work yesterday.  It was quite a sight as well as feeling
March-like winds blowing across the prairie in January.  Most of our snow is
gone and if it wasn’t for the still-long nights, it would feel like spring.

This time of year is always a good time to visit the Minnesota Zoo (which is
mostly indoors) with the grandsons.  The age is shifting on these boys; the
little one will be five years old in a couple of weeks and the older one
will be seven in April.  They’re no longer babies and are climbing towards
the pinnacle of childhood, after which it’s all downhill towards
adolescence.

We went to the zoo last Saturday.  We watched the dolphin show.  We saw the
vicious looking sharks in the aquarium.  We took the monorail outside and
explored the semi-winter landscape filled with bison, musk oxen, wolves, and
tigers.  We ate pizza in the cafeteria before watching a zoo keeper trying
to lure out one of the juvenile komodo dragons from behind a rock by
dangling a dead rat in front of its nose.  We saw birds and exotic tropical
plants.  We watched the Japanese snow monkeys play with the first baby snow
monkey born at the zoo since 1991.

We stopped at my workplace on the way back home to show the boys my
illustrious cubic environment.  It is the place where geeks and nerds go to
die.  The boys livened it up with a frantic burst of football (I bought them
a nerf football with a dolphin on it from the zoo).

Then it was back to grandma and grandpa’s house to spend the night, which
they love.  They brought their game cube, so between playing video games,
rough housing in the family room, and just general hanging out, they had a
good time.

The next morning, after breakfast, we walked Axel around the neighborhood.
Axel was wearing his faux leather coat and looked quite handsome.  The boys
zipped along, climbing every snow bank and sliding on every stretch of ice
they could find.

Their mother came to pick them up and that’s when Axel got loose AGAIN!  Ray
opened the door and the dog zoomed out.  Boogie (the older one) grabbed the
leash, slipped on my running shoes, and ran out the door after Axel.  I put
on Ray’s boots and ran out the door.  Ray put on his shoes and ran out the
door.  Susan, in her high heels, ran out the door.  Poochie, the little one,
ran out the door wearing no shoes or jacket.  Axel was leading the posse!

Boogie and I cornered Axel in one of our neighbor’s fenced yard, but he
slipped around us.  Then Axel went into another fenced yard.  I lifted
Boogie over the fence.  We thought we had him for sure, but Axel burrowed
out under the fence and ran into the woods.  Boogie and I were in hot
pursuit, and Boogie runs a lot faster than I do!

We were slogging through snow and dense woods.  I saw Axel racing away and
then I saw about 10 deer.  Then the deer were racing away, too, with an
ecstatic beagle right behind him.  That was one very happy dog.  What could
be more fun than chasing deer through the woods?!!!!

Susan was on the street and suddenly she saw all these deer come running out
of the woods and down the street and then onto the busy street, where cars
just missed them by inches.  Meanwhile, I found my way out of the woods and
onto the next street over from us.  Susan had gone back to the house and
found poor Poochie inside crying, because no one was there.  She and Pooch
got into her car and began looking for Axel.  They picked me and Boogie up
and we rode around, stopping to inform neighbors that were outside about the
wayward beagle, and also continuing to look for Axel in the nooks and
crannies of our neighborhood.

Ray was driving around, too, but we had no luck.  We decided to go back home
and regroup, but then we saw Ray in his car, and he pointed us back to the
house.  One of our neighbors had trapped Axel in their yard and then called
us.  Ray had picked him up.

Axel was tired.  We were tired.  The boys and Susan went home.  Ray and I
took naps.  Afterwards I went to Target and bought a baby gate to keep Axel
in the dining room/kitchen area and to minimize the time he’s allowed to
freely move about the house.

Axel was neutered yesterday and Ray will pick up from the vet today.  Losing
his “manhood” might help keep him closer to home.  And, he’ll start
obedience training in February, and I think that will help, too.  And I’m
sure the deer will appreciate that, too.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a
list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance
the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for
flaws, but for potential.
~Ellen Goodman