Just got off the phone with Robby, in L.A.  He called to wish Ricky a happy birthday.  I put the phone on speaker, and Robby sang.  Ricky had been snoozing on the playroom couch, and he kept right on snoring I think the reason I didn't pose Ricky with his birthday bone goes without saying . . . during Robby’s “Happy Birthday to You” — but toward the end, he opened his eyes, lifted his head, and licked the phone.  Then he went back to sleep.  Robby told...

So this must be the dog party I keep hearing about . . . A dog party!  A big dog party! Big dogs, little dogs, red dogs, blue dogs, yellow dogs, green dogs, black dogs, and white dogs are all at a dog party!  What a dog party! OMG — how many times did I read those lines???!!!  Let’s see . . . maybe 900?  (That would be 300 nights x 3 boys.)  If Go, Dog.  Go! wasn’t Hmmm. Maybe I should give it a try . . . their favorite book, then I don’t know what was.  And it wasn’t...

Sunday, April 15 was the big day.  I put the top down on my Jeep, and that’s how it would stay — at least for the next 7 months.  Oh, sure, you can yank it back up in a heavy rainstorm, but I generally don’t bother.  I just suck it up.  That’s why Jeep put those rubber plugs under the carpeting — to let the rain drain out.  Very high-tech. No sooner did I declare the “official” start of Spring by opening up my Wrangler than I began thinking...

We have a canine at 7 Devon who's not touching his food. Please send backup. Do you copy? Last week I walked into the playroom to a sight I might never see again:  Ricky the Beagle asleep on the couch — with an untouched tray of sliced apples not more than than two feet away. Tempting . . . I knew what was going on, of course.  Ricky, as many of you know, has epilepsy.  Not often, but occasionally, something about the seizures and/or the meds he takes for them makes the...

For a treat, he'll hustle We got off to a late start.  Those of you who followed my September cross-country road trip have heard this refrain all too often.   (Getting up and getting out has never been my long suit.)  I also had to do without my breakfast banana, because Bad sign: no cars in the parking lot Nana, my mother-in-law (no relation to ba-nana), snarfed down the last one.  I was hoping to make up for this disappointment with a nice cup of coffee from Christie’s...

More comfy than the Acura? For 7,000 miles?? Hmmm -- let me think about this . . . Last Thursday I ran into an old writing acquaintance at Barnes & Noble.  She asked me what I’ve been up to.  “You wouldn’t know about this,” I started, “but in September I drove cross-country with my dog . . .” “Of course I know about that, ” she interrupted. This happens to me all the time.  I tend to forget that via BEAGLE MAN, and via my...

Why we feel the way we feel about beagles: •  The very name “beagle” is a cute name  (American Staffordshire Terrier?  Rottweiler?  Scottish Deerhound?  I don’t think so . . . ) •  Their velvet ears (OMG!) •  The way it looks when those ears blow back and up in the wind •  Snoopy is a beagle All right -- ears back! •  The handsome white-black-and-brown color scheme •  The look on their face when they gaze up at you •  How fierce they are  🙂 Sign given me by my...

Jonathan the Husky Dog: Maybe he should have played This has been a tough March Madness for me. As if it’s not bad enough that I currently wallow in the 24th spot in my son Matt’s 31-person pool, Carol — Matt’s mother and my wife — is in 4th place!  Fourth place in a pool with some pretty hardened college hoops aficionados.  Fourth place with the very first bracket she has ever entered in her life! Carol: 2012 Rookie of the Year; 2013 bracketology...

Carol and I spent the weekend before last skiing in Vermont.  I should say I spent it skiing in Vermont; Carol had just undergone PRPT — platelet-rich plasma therapy — on both her left knee and right elbow.  PRPT is the breakthrough non-invasive alternative to surgery, and it’s getting lots of positive press: less pain, no physical therapy needed, shorter recovery period.  The only downside — at least for Carol — is that it didn’t work.  But at...

Jay Beagle “Just so you know, there’s a player for the Caps [Washington D.C.’s pro hockey team] named Jay Beagle.”  This was in an e-mail I received yesterday from a BEAGLE MAN follower from our nation’s capital. Ricky the Beagle No, actually I did not know that.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone famous with the last name “Beagle” — though I found the thought intriguing.  So I Googled “People with the last name...