Beagleman – Page 54

My Son, the Hiker

All three of my sons — the human ones, that is — are excellent athletes. Football, basketball, baseball . . . I’ve gotten a huge kick watching them play over the years. I’ve also coached tons of their youth sports teams, and it would be fair to say that, as much as anything, sports is the glue…

My Animal Companion

Usually when I visit my barber shop, they’ve got Shibani Joshi or Neil Cavuto or some other talking head from the Fox Business Network squawking about the U.S.’s role in the global economy — and I promptly fall asleep. But last time I was there, Mario, my barber, was in charge of the remote (his…

Kemba, Mom, and Ricky

Somewhere along the line during UConn’s historic and magnificent run through the Big East Tournament and then March Madness, Kemba Walker mentioned Sunday, May 8 as being a very big day for him. It would not only be his 21st birthday — reason enough to go wild — but also the day of his early gr…

Long-Distance Doggy

Though I hinted this might be the case in an earlier post, now it’s fact: Our youngest son is heading west to USC in August to start his college career, and my wife and I couldn’t be happier: We’ve often said where the third kid goes to school should be all about where the parents want to visit…

The Two Rickys

Last October, my friend Chris — also a writer — informed me that Lukie, her beloved Lhasa Apso, had passed away. So I was glad to hear that recently she got a new pup, another Lhasa Apso. She also told me that she’d named him Ricky. After congratulating her, I had to give her a little grief, o…

Greetings from Ricky!

As Carol came in from the garage to the playroom last night, she was blitzed by an eager, kissing, licking, tail-wagging little beagle. He, of course, had heard the car pull up, and was waiting by the door. I followed Carol a moment later, and got the exact same treatment. We’d been in Vermont f…

Ricky’s Best Friends

Ricky’s not a perfect dog. Where food is concerned, he has no morals whatsoever. What’s his is his, and what’s yours is his. He’d steal your croissant soon as look at you. On top of that, he’s stubborn to the point of obsession. Let’s say I want to walk on Turkey Hill, and he wants to walk on…

Good Thing Your Daddy Loves You

I hear that shakety-shake-shake-shake, ears flopping side to side against his head — the universal sound of Dog Waking Up. It’s pitch black. Four A.M. This is a little early for Ricky’s morning toilet ritual but, as they say, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Since we’re not set up with a dogg…

When Robby Met Toby

In a recent post (“Dad, Can I Have a Dog?”), I traced Robby’s campaign that led to Ricky’s becoming a member of our household. Now I realize I left out an important part. Yes, from the time his middle brother went away to college (leaving Robby an “only child”) till he finally wore me down more t…

Milo, Haley, and the Dogs of Santa Monica

No, it’s not my intention to turn BEAGLE MAN into a travelogue; it just happens that we found ourselves in Southern California a few days after our Costa Rica vacation. Seems our youngest son may be L.A.-bound for college next year, and we were out on campus for a meet-and-greet. Imagine if we ha…