Ricky the Studious
Center of attention (just the way he likes it)
Last week Ricky sat in on not just one, but two of my writing workshops. The first was the Tuesday After-School Writing Club I started for fifth- and sixth-graders at Bryant Ele…
Really Lame Excuse
“Sorry, I had to give Robby a ride to practice.”
How many times did I hear that line, or some variation of it, when Beagle Man would be running late for a doctor’s appointment or a dinner with friends? And when he really screwed up, he’d play the sympathy card. “Had to take Robby down to Greenw…
Ricky? Ronnie? Reggie?
Robby and Ricky as pups
I must have told the story about how Ricky came to be “Ricky” a thousand times: How Robby, then 9, named his beagle puppy for Ricky Williams, the Miami Dolphins running back, and his ultimate hero at …
Smarts
Last month, another of those “10 Smartest Dog Breeds” lists came out. This one had beagles at #4. Now let’s think about this. Dogs don’t take SATs or ACTs or Wonderlic tests, so what, exactly, are we going by? How easily we can be trained? Border collies and German Shepherds are ranked ahead…
Ricky the Beagle for RTM!
Remember my friend Gustav? He’s a Norsk Buhund (yes, some of my best friends are Norsk), and I wrote about him last February. He belongs to Eric, who works with Mrs. Beagle Man. In a lot of ways, I look up to Gus. For one thing, he has an actual job at Mrs. B’s office. You don’t believe me? …
Andrew’s Army
Something a little different today.
Andrew Accardi
One of Beagle Man’s very favorite kids in the entire world, Andrew Accardi, passed away last week at the age of 20, after battling pediatric neuroblastoma for 15 years. My o…
Depart From Beagle Man’s Plan? I Don’t Think So . . .
So it turns out we did hike the Lye Brook Trail after all, even though Beagle Man wrote in his last post that we
Me on the Lye Brook Trail
couldn’t. About an hour-and-a-half before we were supposed to leave VT on Friday, the…
Why Ricky Gets Dragged Along On All My Hikes
Hiking Bromley: We didn’t “summit,” but we had a great time
Am up in VT. Came here Wednesday night, straight from teaching my writing course in Hartford. It always occurs to me when I reach Trinity that I’m 1/3 of the way t…
Beagles and Bantams and Bears, Oh My!
On Saturday I went to Hartford to see my real good friend Rob G. play football, Trinity against Bowdoin. Trinity
Catching up on some sleep during the game . . .
won 40-21, but honestly? I wasn’t all that into the game (see …
Myself As Muse
Mary Oliver’s a famous poet, and she just came out with a book called Dog Songs. Here’s what she has to say about
Is Mary Oliver’s Ricky . . .
dogs, in general: “They are a kind of poetry themselves when they are devoted no…