Another Reason I Hate Spiders

Last night, my husband and Ms. Beagle spent the evening at the emergency animal hospital. We came home from work and found Ms. Beagle sprouting hives across her back. She had silver dollar size lumps underneath her fur that seemed to worsen over the next hour, so my husband drove her to the after-hours vet hospital, all the way across town. They gave her Benadryl and told him that most likely she was either bitten by a spider or ate a spider. This morning the hives made a reappearance so we’ve been giving her with Benadryl throughout the day. Tonight she gets a bath (she’s really going to regret that spider appetizer). Amazingly, despite her discomfort, she was still able to stand guard at the edge of the drop cloth we have under Pumpkin’s high chair, waiting for any choice morsel to fall to the ground. What they say about beagles is true, if you ever see a beagle that passes up food run to the nearest vet because something is drastically wrong with that dog. As I’ve expressed before, food is of utmost importance to Ms. Beagle.

Pumpkin’s Christmas Picture

We took Pumpkin’s photo for our Christmas card today- that was an experience. He was actually very cooperative yet we had issues getting our digital camera to focus correctly. Also, since the camera actually takes the shot several seconds after you click the shudder and then takes multiple seconds to reset, we kept missing the ideal smile shots. All in all, it’s a good photo, however.
We tried to get a picture of Pumpkin with the dog, but of course Ms. Beagle was not cooperating. We were using a dog biscuit as a bribe and she pretty much came through and bowled poor Pumpkin over in order to try to get to the treat. At best, she pretty much ignores Pumpkin; at her worst, she deliberately avoids him (hopefully this is will stay her worst treatment of Pumpkin). It’s rather sad since Pumpkin’s entire face lights up every time he sees Ms. Beagle. Ms. Beagle is sweet but is definitely a very selfish, food-motivated dog. If my husband and I were to suddenly die and Ms. Beagle was trapped in the house with our corpses, I predict within twelve hours she would be noshing on our bodies. You would NOT want to be trapped in an Andes plane crash site with Ms. Beagle…