And then there are the doggies...

Yes, the tender-heartedness continues, unfortunately.

It started with the old beagle lady. At least, her "papers" say "beagle" but she's very obviously a basset or basset mixed with beagle. Ears like a bloodhound, legs thick and stumpy, tail as thick as broomstick carried low, unlike any beagle. But she's marked like a beagle.

Add to the neighborhood one intact dog, a decent but aggressive fellow. He's a "rat terrier", not a recognized AKC breed but they breed consistent and look like the intelligent branch of the Jack Russell family, only taller, square, and a bit weightier. This particular rat terrier was brought home as a puppy at the request of the eldest teenage daughter, who promptly disowned him so that her brother would have to take care of him.

He got house trained but still is wild and unruly and pretty aggressive around other intact males. He's also very demanding whenever he catches a whiff of a bitch in heat. And when the basset-beagle bitch came into heat, he had his way with her. The result was a daughter (of course!) with a sweet and quiet disposition who tolerates just about anything, but barks out in the field all night.

When she grew up, the rat terrier had his way with her, too, and the result was a daughter (of course!) with the sweetest disposition on earth. She's a bit dumb, though she did learn to obey a couple of commands--like, "Out!" (which makes her go outside the room and stand there, not crowding into an already crowded room.

Then both the rat terrier-beagle girls came into heat around the same time. Their dad was all over both of them, and lo and behold, puppies entered the world. The mom had four, the daughter had two. The mom had to adopt her daughter's babies because the daughter proved to be a flibbertigibbet, disappearing from home for two days at a time, twice, so now we have six puppies and two breeding moms.

It has been more difficult to find homes for the puppies. Occasionally someone adopts a dog. Two found a hunting home (probably the skill will come naturally for dogs with so many hunting genes in them) but bitches are a problem for people around here. The thought of paying over a hundred dollars for the privilege of adopting a puppy just makes most people shiver.

I'd put up pictures but the camera I owned four years ago, before I came here, no longer works. Hopefully I can locate someone near us who has a camera that will work on my computer.