In October 2004, we lost our beloved beagle Chuck, Chuckie, Cheese Dog – he responded to all of these names! He was 16-1/2 years old, and we loved him without measure. Losing him was devastating. We considered ourselves ‘dog people’ but were having a very, very hard time imagining ‘replacing’ our boy Chuck.

It took a while, before we could even talk about bringing another dog home. Slowly, very slowly, we started to poke around the internet looking at Beagle rescue sites. It was hard to do. Some days it was close to impossible.

We stumbled across the BREW site, and never left. Just looking at all the adorable faces that needed homes brought tears to our eyes. It became a weekend activity to look at the BREW site – to see who had an ‘Adoption Pending.’ Those are two really nice words.

One week we happened to notice a BREW adoption event was scheduled. We called that Thursday, submitted our application on Friday, and hit the road at 7am on Saturday morning to drive from New York to Maryland for the event. It was a hot, humid, rainy day and there were lots of adorable beagles in need of homes.

A few tears and many smiles later, we left with a new boy beagle in tow. His BREW name was Barney. But to us, he was Bob. Our lives, while back to normal now that we have a beagle in our home, will never be the same!

Because Bob was a stray, and hadn’t been fostered, no one really knew his background or temperament. So we were prepared for just about anything.

We found that Bob is a perfect mix of angel and imp! He’ll give us a loving look while he takes something into his mouth he knows he shouldn’t have. I think he’s testing us! He has also developed a ‘fan club’ since coming to live with us. We live in a neighborhood with tons of kids and they all come running when they see us out walking Bob. I asked one mother if her kids responded with the same level of enthusiasm for the ice cream truck. She had to think about the answer. Enough said!

Bob’s sweet boy temperament mixed with a little bit of the devil makes for one very crazy household! He loves to watch Animal Planet, hates to be alone, and is truly puppy-like. Despite being about 2 years old, he really seems to be experiencing things for the first time. Suspected to be an abandoned hunting dog, it wasn’t surprising that the poor guy was a little startled by many of the sounds and sites of our urban neighborhood. He was initially a little put-off by concrete. He was surprised by the sound of a plane flying overhead, and the “chirping” of the street crossing signal really bugged him out the first time he heard it. He still tries to ‘bury’ his rawhides in our wall-to-wall. But every day he gets a little more comfortable, and before long, he will be a true city boy.

Bob has been with us for a little over 4 months now and each day is a new adventure. We celebrated Chuck life on the 1st anniversary if his passing by taking Bob to the same beaches Chuck grew up on when we were bachelors. It was a cold day, but Bob loved the sand and the ferry ride over to a place here in New York called Fire Island. We just celebrated Thanksgiving in the snow in northwestern Pennsylvania, and Bob had a blast. He’s about to have his 4th visit from an obedience trainer that comes to our home every Wednesday night and he is making good progress. He seems to like his new coach and listens very well. Everyday we say how lucky we are to have found him. We’re looking forward to a lot of years with our little guy Bob!

If you have adopted from BREW and would like to add your Happy Ending, please email your story to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .