happiness is a warm puppy. - charles m. schulz

disclaimer: if you are not a dog person (or treat your dog like your child), you may want to skip this.

"happiness is a warm puppy" are wise words spoken by the creator of peanuts and the famous beagle, snoopy.  on july 5, 2010 jake and i brought home our very own puppy, dug.  we had just been married a month when i saw my mom's neighbor's sister (whew, did you get that?) had set up a stand with her beagle puppies for sale.  i made the huge mistake of picking up the most cuddly puppy in the bunch.  despite the nebraska heat, this little guy snuggled in for a little nap in my arms instantly making me call to convince my new husband that we needed a puppy.

we researched and discovered beagles are a friendly breed and the characteristics of a beagle were something we were fond of.  so a call was made, date arranged, and in 2 days we were off to pick up our beagle.  we had to drive about 45 minutes to ravenna to pick him up.  when we arrived she let out the beagle puppies from their pen and they instantly started running all over the place chasing each other.  we quickly wrangled ours from the pack, paid, and were off.

as soon as we were out of the driveway, our new beagle was upset.  do you blame the poor puppy?  he was just ripped from his mom, his siblings, and the comforts of his pen.  he cried (shrilly and loudly) for the complete duration of our drive home.  there were several times jake and i looked at each other and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.  i'm pretty sure i even suggested taking him back.

but we didn't.

we arrived home and he instantly calmed down.  he was finally warming up to us.  a few minutes later, we showed him his shiny new food bowl, and fresh water, as well as a green, fluffy, squeak bone with tug ropes coming out of it (his first toy).  that sealed the deal.  he was in love with us.

there's so much more i could add to the story about raising a puppy (potty training!), sneaking him into our bed while jake was on a camping trip, teaching him tricks, his hate/fear of cats, etc. but it all comes down to the fact that our home is so much better with our dog.  i couldn't imagine life without him.

as many know, one of my favorite books to read with my students is "where the red fern grows".  i'll close with a quote from the book.

“Men," said Mr. Kyle, "people have been trying to understand dogs ever since the beginning of time. One never knows what they'll do. You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don't. I may be wrong, but I call it love - the deepest kind of love."

After these words were spoken, a thoughtful silence settled over the men. The mood was broken by the deep growling voice I had heard back in the washout."It's a shame that people all over the world can't have that kind of love in their hearts," he said. "There would be no wars, slaughter, or murder; no greed or selfishness. It would be the kind of world that God wants us to have - a wonderful world.”
― Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

and what a wonderful world it would be.