Learning Under a Shade Tree

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52 – August, 2020

By Wayne Cavanaugh

When a couple of good friends recently asked if I would like to take a drive up to see a litter of beagle pups, I couldn’t resist. Beagle pups are the cutest things in the world and I was quite interested in this particular breeding. Most important, it seemed like eons ago that I had actually seen other people’s dogs and talked dogs with a group of breeders.

My friends are bright and caring folks, one is an RN at a terrific hospital, so I knew they would be considerate and safe. With a lifetime of beagle memories in my head and a full tank of gas, I made the pleasant one-hour trip through the countryside. I never turned on the radio, just drove in silence re-imagining some great hounds of my childhood. I conjured up the great beagles my late father had talked about with detailed enthusiasm, hounds that were before my time. Then I pulled up the long drive to the kennel.

It was my lucky day. It happened to work out that the sire’s owner and another long-time beagle breeder were also coming. We sat in the shade of a tree on the edge of a wonderful wrap-around porch. Five people with a combined century-plus of dog knowledge and beagle narratives; it was an absolute pleasure. It was also a convincing reminder of how important it is for dog people to regularly take the time to sit down and share their knowledge face-to-face in a group of people who are similarly passionate about their dogs and the sport. Seems to me that those opportunities are less easy to come by these days. And that’s a shame.

We had a wonderful day sitting outdoors, watching puppies for hours on end and talking dogs past and present. It was easy to see that each pup represented a set of physical and mental features that were handed down through their predecessors. Like all pedigrees, each generation told a story. This time, the story tellers were on hand to describe the dogs in ways that made those names come alive.

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52 – August, 2020

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 10 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.