A Wild Beagle Adventure!

The sun shown brightly and the air was cool. Leading my beagles to their kennels, I passed through an open place in the barnyard. The black cat “Mustache”, named after the vibrant white mustache that continually grinned, was in the opening looking quite smug. Duke and Dahlia darted after him ignoring the primary desire of breakfast, and passed into the nearby field in their chase. Once they tired of the sport and Mustache gave up, they went on to obey my call and return to the kennel. Rather annoyed, I waited impatiently for the rascally beagles to rejoin me. Faithful old Daisy kept by my side not desiring to join in the youth’s enthusiastic chase.

Dahlia racing through the field.

The two excited beagles where just to the point of coming back thru the gate, when Dahlia stopped and sniffed the air and road-way. Duke joined her, their bays of excited and important pursuit filled the air. They were off in the field again. Annoyed, I went on to finish up Daisy’s chores and get up to the house for the breakfast that Ann had already signaled. I knew that those impulsive Beagles would be back within the hour as their bowls were still full of an uneaten breakfast which they rarely, if indeed ever missed.

Sure enough, Dahlia arrived out of breath around 9 o’clock – a little late but I wasn’t going to complain. Surprisingly, Duke was not with her and nowhere to be seen or heard. I was a little worried. Normally he is always the first to be back. There was not much to be done but wait, and pray he would arrive soon. So I went on with the day’s normal activities checking the barnyard every so often, expecting to see Duke at any moment.

Finally, two o’clock rolled along and still no Duke! I was just about to start driving around calling for him when Katherine came flying down the stairs declaring that Duke had indeed been found! She handed me her phone with the Facebook message- a neighbor just down the road had Duke, and said they had an “interesting” story to tell.

Ann and I climbed into the Corolla and headed down the road keeping an eye out for the address given. We had never seen or been to this neighbor’s house before and didn’t want to miss it. Finally we came onto a cleared gully that really was right below our property. There had been a couple of cougar sightings here.

Knocking at the door of the house we were greeted by Mr. And Mrs. Roads, and Duke! He looked extremely tired, but eager to see us. Mr. & Mrs. Roads told us that he and Dahlia had been chasing a COUGAR!!!

My two little beagles had gotten that fearsome Cat on a dead run down the gully when at last the beast turned to finish the fight. That’s when Mr. Roads came out hearing all the clamor of the beagle howls. Upon seeing the beagles, he whistled wildly at them. The Mountain lion turned and dashed off again.
Duke had sauntered over to investigate the new person, while Dahlia, on the other hand, started to return home.

I looked down amazed at Duke – obviously he thought himself a much bigger animal than he was! I was very thankful that Mr. Roads had been in time to prevent an attack on the part of the cougar. That probably would have ended up in one or even both deaths of my beautiful beagles.

Duke had behaved very sweetly and friendly with the family. They really enjoyed his short stay while they attempted to locate his owner. Indeed they liked him so much and thought him so handsome that they wished to purchase a Beagle puppy from his next litter for their daughter.

Ann and I thanked them both immensely for finding and caring for Duke. Duke was brought back home, and I can tell you that Duke was very pleased to be back in his kennel, eating his breakfast.

I on the other hand, was thanking the Lord for returning my Beagles to me safe and sound!

The End

Duke