Annabelle.

You've seen Annabelle. 

She's the 5 year-old T-Ball player who misses the pop fly because the dandelions at her feet are more interesting. 

She's Bambi, questioning Thumper of whether the lake is frozen enough to walk on. 

She's the baby sister who shys behind a large chair when company comes through the door. 

She's our Beagle. And this is her story. 

Jenny was convinced, not long after we married, that we needed a second dog. Bailey needed a friend. She would feel better about us being gone all day if he had another dog at home with him. 

So, after listening to her arguments for some time, I finally gave in to her. It was January of 2005, and I decided to get her a new puppy for Valentine's Day. 

Jenny had wanted a Basset Hound for a long time. I found a breeder in Waco who had a litter, and went out to her house one afternoon, thinking I was about to leave with a Basset puppy. Something about the breeder and the puppies didn't sit right with me, so I left without one. 

After thinking it over, I decided to clue her in to what I was doing. I wanted to make sure she got what she wanted. So we began discussing what we wanted, what we thought would be a good companion for Bailey, etc. etc. We visited a breeder that had a litter of Black Lab puppies, and came very, very close to purchasing another Lab. Bailey was 2, and still chewing, and we weren't ready to go through a Lab's puppy years again just yet. 

After a few days, we had almost decided on a Dachshund. I was worried simply because of Bailey's size, and concerned that they might be playing too rough and Bailey break its back. 

Jenny's great-grandmother had passed away, and we had to be in Ft. Worth over the weekend. When we returned to the kennel to pick up Bailey, someone had left their 7 week-old Beagle to be boarded overnight. Jenny picked up the dog, and was sold. We had to have a Beagle. And we had to have it now. 

As luck would have it, we found 3 litters of Beagles in the Waco paper that weekend. After calling them all, we decided to drive out to Moody, TX, about 20 miles west of Waco, and meet a breeder there. His were Blue Tick Beagles. Named due to their bluish-grey markings, much like the coon hounds. 

If our Labrador's breeder was the Rolls Royce of dog breeders, we had just met Ford Motor Company's answer. In a make-shift pen on his front porch were 5 or 6 of the fattest little Beagle puppies you could imagine. When I questioned their intestinal state, he told me that he "Gets them good and tanked-up with their last meal so they sleep all night (note to self...this could work for kids, too...). 

Somehow, we fell in love with the runt again. Her ears were at least  three times the size of her head. She was so full of dinner that she couldn't even stand up. But she had beautiful markings, her eyes were clear, and the breeder's honest handshake put us both at ease. Almost laughingly, we handed him 135.00 cash (a drop in the bucket to what I paid for Bailey two years earlier) and left with a baby Beagle. 

Four years later, she's our little cuddle bug. She's nearly 30 pounds, but she thinks she's dainty. 

She sleeps at Jenny's feet, under the sheets, blankets, and duvet, and seldom comes up for air. 

She and Bailey are best friends. We know that one will mourn the loss of the other someday. They spend their time together on the couch, playing in the backyard, and sleeping in their kennel. 

She'll be focused on tracking a squirrel one minute, and chasing a butterfly the next. No matter where he hides them, she always finds my dad's house shoes and brings one into the den to chew on. 

She'll dig through a visitor's luggage and sprint through the living room with a girdle in tow, she can destroy a garbage bag with chicken remnants inside within seconds, and will howl in terror at her own reflection in the front door glass. 

She's our own little square peg, and we can't imagine life without her.