The Weekend At Beagle Camp.

Day Six, Saturday. All week, I've been looking forward to sleeping in this morning. The Belles have been so good about not waking up early since Beagle Camp began, that I The resident four know and understand Saturdays. Sadly, the Belles do not. I hear a commotion at 5:30AM. The girls have overturned one of their water dishes, and they are all chewing on it, trying to pull it four different ways. In my half asleep state, I decide the answer is to feed them. I get the food ready, set it down, and it disappears, in about 10 seconds flat. I've not seen the girls act this way yet. I'm amazed. And when the chewing starts on my toes, I'm AWAKE. I refill the water dishes, and notice that the girls have gone back into the crate, and are almost asleep again. I'm amazed. I head back to bed. I'm going to take advantage of the silence for as long as it lasts. When I do wake up again, about four hours later, it's looking like a BEAUTIFUL day. The pups are awake, clamoring at the barricade. The newspaper is largely intact! Pam lets the resident four outside, and we get the pups outside as well. I make coffee, and we sit outside watching the dogs run around. Daisy does NOT like the puppies.

She's feeling a little, well, HOUNDED, by them (no pun intended). They follow her EVERYWHERE. Pam lets Daisy back in the house. The pups discover Dog House Mountain, and climb and play all around it, with Potsy in hot pursuit, and Buster in his usual role as the Fun Police. He even CLIMBS Dog House Mountain, in pursuit of one of the fun loving puppies. Buddy is quietly contemplating the scene as he sits next to Pam. I bring the pups back inside to feed them. It's going to be a big day here at Beagle Camp. Claudette and Amber are coming to visit the puppies, and there's a prospective adopter coming, too. Pam and I come back inside and look around. How can we make it look like we don't have eight dogs in the house?? Before we can decide what to do first, a "to the death fight" erupts from the kitchen. It's Tara and Georgia. Pam gets Dixie and Julep out of the way, and I break the girls apart. Tara is the most wounded, and Georgia has a few nicks and scrapes. She's whimpering and whining. I clean Tara up, and wrap her in a towel - she's shaking and she doesn't want to be put down. I sit on the couch and hold her on my lap for awhile, while Pam and Georgia sit in the recliner. After the two Belles are calm, they go outside, and we clean the house. The dogs remain outside as long as possible, with frequent visits from either me or Pam, so as not to mess up the house. I put down new plastic and newspaper before Claudette arrives. Then I bring in the pups. And we've got a mini beagle camp going on! There are TWELVE beagles running around my back yard - Amber has the puppies well in control, even breaking up several fights. She has them running back and forth around the yard, and Miles, Leila and Frankie are all exploring the area as well. Marty has staked out the dog house as his own. Behind the house, my neighbor's patio light flickers on and off - (I suspect he's counting beagles) - and then the phone rings - the adopter and her beagle are coming - we're up the THIRTEEN beagles, and having a wonderful time!

Claudette gets a couple cute shots of the Belles, and picks out her bobble-head, and then we round up her charges. She and Amber head out, and Snoopy and his mom look over the puppies. Snoopy has narrowed the choice down to either Georgia or Julep. Snoopy picks Julep, and Julep responds with a playful nip on the nose. And then the chaos ends, as Julep leaves with Snoopy and his mom for a foster-to-adopt situation. The resident four are exhausted, the remaining Belles are exhausted, and Pam and I are also wiped out. The girls eat their dinner quickly and pile into the crate. No muss, no fuss. They are conked out! I can't resist - I get the camera and take some pictures of the pile of snoozing, lightly snoring puppies. I collapse in my recliner to watch some TV, and then we head off to bed.