Beach walks

We have been on the beach a lot lately, but it is so busy we are not quite sure what to make of it. Usually when we go on the beach it is fairly quiet, and we see 'regulars'. These last few days have been like a zoo! Too many loud dogs, too many loud (and fat) people, and too much ball throwing. We have been a little overwhelmed. We overheard our humans talking and they think it's because of the 'holidays' ..... lots of people who don't normally walk their dogs on the beach - but then they don't really keep an eye on their dogs - and there's nothing worse than a wandering dog being a pest for us regulars!! (sometimes these 'new' humans don't even clean up their dogs poo!!!)
We do like the beach but look forward to quieter times there.

Christmas day!

We are getting fed up of all this partying! What all the fuss is about we can't make out, but it involves lots of unwrapping of things and throwing coloured paper on the floor. Sometimes we are allowed to steal bits and rip it up, so that's okay. Today our male human unwrapped a parcel and then squeeled with delight ..... he then put on a shirt (obviously he liked it) and showed it to us (as if we cared!) but - it had pictures of us on it!!! Actually it was rather fetching, and the two guys on the picture were looking really cool!

Birthday!

Well, today is Tilly's first birthday and the humans are so excited. They sang a strange song and giggled and laughed, and then produced some "goodies" which they set fire to. It did smell nice though and poor Tilly was convinced she was about to get a real treat (which of course she would have to share with me, so I was excited too) In the end though it was a bit of ruse because all we got were some rather nice doggy treats - we did enjoy them though, and of course we loved all the attention. Sometimes it is great being a Beagle. I wonder when my birthday is??

What did we tell you !!

As we suspected there was indeed something going on ..... it turns out that Friday evening was party time again!!
This time the party was inside the house and at the front, and we were locked out at the back. We did get a juicy bone (trying to placate us 'cos they were feeling guilty) but come on, we live here!
We tried whining and barking, scratching and looking pathetic ... all to no avail. So eventually we just gave up and snoozed. At long last we were allowed in when most humans had gone - and what smells! Clearly some had spilled lovely food on the carpet - and boy was it exciting, we were salivating just at the smells of those cleared up delights. Everything was higaldy piggly, with all the furniture in different places, and glasses, plates and bottles everywhere, unfortunately all out of our reach. We planned to solve this little thing when the humans had gone to bed, but lo and behold when they went off to bed they took us with them!!
Now that was worth all the complaining and missing out - we slept like logs!!

Something's up!

Definitely something is going on. Now we have been banned from going into the front courtyard because the wheelbarrow has been filled with lots of boxes wrapped in paper with that funny bloke's picture on them - and some even have a funny dog with big horns and a red nose.
Then today someone arrived and deposited boxes of stuff which were chinking. Again, we are not allowed near so we can't give any more info - but we are pretty certain something is afoot. The female human is getting stressed out and keeps talking into a plastic thing with a curly string attached to the wall. She keeps saying things like "are you sure it will be here tomorrow?, we are having a party!"
The question is - what will happen to us? If the last party is anything to go by we could be pretty stressed out too!!

What's going on?

Things have been hectic of late. Funny trees with lights on have been appearing,furniture has been moved around, and last Friday masses of humans were here drinking and making such a din. It was very tiring for us, the only consolation was that we got masses of 'tit bits' which were probably not intended for us. Good at the time but it made us sick all night and into the next day. The other thing we have noticed is that human stress levels have been rising, and our usual cheeky pranks have not been greeted with the patience normally shown.
What is really baffling is - who is the funny bloke with the big white beard and the red suit???

As if by magic

We have noticed that things seem to arrive at our house - usually for the humans - which they tear open and read. Sometimes they get excited because the things are glossy with lots of pictures - they're the ones we like to steal the best because of the great tearing sound they make. They usually try to hide them though ........ but we always have our eyes open for mischief. However, there is one paper thingy which we don't destroy and it arrived today!! It is our (yes our) very own Beagle magazine! The humans steal that and read it from cover to cover, laughing and saying things like "ooo.. look at this", or "listen to this". They think we don't know what's going on but when they are not around we sneak looks at our Beagle buddies in the mag, and check out all the beagle news. We were even in it once. Being a beagle is such fun!!

What's going on?

Like all kids, we like to play, and more importantly we don't like to miss out on anything. So when we are outside we want to know what's happening inside - and when we are inside we are all ears for any thing which might need checking out outside. It makes sense doesn't it? Just have to keep checking!

What's the big deal?

We like to bring stuff in. Sometimes the stuff is regular stuff - like bits of plant, the odd snail, but sometimes it seems we make the wrong choices. It is hard work getting some of our stuff through that flap, and we feel pretty proud when we manage it. Can you imagine our disgust when we are told to take it back out again!! I mean, what's a girl to do for fun??

Big trouble

We love each other, there is no doubt about that. But - like all siblings we occasionally
have little disagreements. Well last evening we had one of our spats - can't even remember what it was about now, but we going hammer and tongs at each other and our humans got angry. They shouted at us and put us outside as a punishment..... they even closed the inner door so we could not even get back in through the flap! Of course as soon as we got outside we were buddies again, so we combined forces to look pathetic at the door. They took a while to relent (at least 2 minutes) but we got let back in with a stern warning!!! Serves us right. Today we have been very good, so we got taken to the beach again. It was fun except that this great big Irish wolfhound kept wanting to play with us - and we were rolled all over the place! We took a wide berth from him!!

Hide and seek

We love to play hide and seek. One of us hides (not so subtlely I may add)and when the other one comes along we pounce! Here is me (Tilly) waiting to pounce on Tara who is trying to sleep - huh, sleeping when I want to play I don't think so!! When the time is right I will pounce and scare her into playing chasies or whatever. Gosh, life is such fun.

Sofa mess

You remember us telling you about our fun with the sofa and its contents .... well apparently our Auntie Louise in Hong Kong has asked if our humans had any photos. Now this is highly likely as they are always taking photos of us doing something or other. So ...... for posterity, here is one!

Dishwasher trouble

Now this is innocent Tara talking .... you'll never believe what that Tilly did this morning. We were eating (in seperate rooms as usual because she tries to steal mine!) when I heard such a kerfuffle, and then looked through the glass to see Tilly being chased out by the male human. Apparently what happened was that the lady human was stacking the dishwasher when Tilly decided she wanted to get into the machine and lick all the plates!! The machine tipped and the top drawer came out causing mayhem! Tilly dived out of the dog flap like a greyhound, and the door was shut behind her. She knew she was in trouble 'cos she didn't even try to return for ages!! Of course I was little innocent, and made the most of it.

Socks

Isn't it odd the things humans will do to amuse us dogs?
Our male human sits on the bed to put things on his feet he calls socks. We try to grab them - such fun. Sometimes we get them, sometimes not, he pretends to be angry but that's all part of the fun. We have noticed that a lot of his socks have quite a few holes in them, wonder why??

Brave me

Brave me being Tara. Today we went to the beach again - we love the beach. There were millions of dogs there and it was such a lovely day. Our humans tried to get us to go into the water - tempting us with treats - and I did it! Not all the way mind you, but it was a fun way to get a treat. Tilly, on the other hand - even though she is the greedy one between us - would not go in even for a treat. From now on I will call her Tilly wimp!
We are now wiped out and so have decided to spend the rest of the day crashing.

Discovery

We have made a great new discovery - if we tear at the metal thing on the sofa cushion it slips open , and then it reveals lots and lots of white fluffy stuff. The other day we had enough time to almost empty it - fluff everywhere. We were very quiet so the humans didn't notice what we were doing. The fluffy stuff is rather odd to chew but still great fun. When the humans came in to the room they pretended to be angry and we had to go out for a couple of minutes while they picked it all up. We didn't stay out for very long though and then we were cuddled again. Isn't life fun!!

Gardening

Our male human is into gardening - he plays with plants every day, and has all these cool tools which we love to creep up and 'borrow'. The best bit is when he's not looking and we can knock over plant pots. Sometimes they are empty in which case we just chew them but sometimes we get lucky and they are full of brown stuff and green things like sticks .These taste yummy but he does get upset when they were full and are now empty ... maybe the stuff all over the floor is the reason he gets upset?? This photo is of me (Tara)offering to help with the watering. ( I do have one question though - why does he cheer when it rains and we hate it so much??)

Sick!!

I was sick in the night last (Tara) and didn't feel well at all. Both my humans cleaned up after me and then stroked me to sleep. They said it was because I eat so much rubbish, but I don't know what they mean - I eat what's going, I don't know its rubbish or not. Admittedly the stuff in the bowl is nicer than most of the stuff I steal from the wardrobe, but how am I to know what 'rubbish' is? Maybe they should label everyhting.

Wet!

This last couple of days have been very odd. We've noticed that every now and then the yellow thing in the sky disappears and wet stuff falls, and sometimes it's very windy and 'loud'. We don't like this at all. I (Tilly) will go out in it to do the necessary but don't stay there long .... but Tara (wimpy Tara) won't even do that. She does her stuff on the patio floor undercover. I mean, okay getting wet is not great but hey.
Luckily for her the male human seems to be very understanding and just picks it and gives her a pat - I think it's a pat of sympathy, he gives me an even bigger pat for bravery.

The weekend

Humans are weird. Our humans had other humans come round to our house on Friday - and then they all proceeded to eat masses of food sitting around the table in the forbidden zone. It took ages! ...... and all this time we were ignored! We tried everything, whimpering, barking, looking cute - nothing worked. I mean - how come these other humans didn't fall for our sad eyes?

Thank goodness when they left we were able to cause havoc as the dishwasher was being loaded.

The the next two days our humans were in and out doing "jobs" . Don't know what that means but we were not amused being left all day. Still, as a reward for being so pathetic and good we were taken to the beach again this morning. All's well that ends well!

Beaching it.

We went to the beach again today. Off the leads we had such good fun. Lots of dogs to play with and seaweed to smell and roll in. We had the best time playing with a horse! (well, we thought it was a horse but we heard our humans talking to the other humans and apparently it was a dog called a great Dane) .... Whatever it was, it was enormous, such good fun to run underneath and back again. Big dogs can be scary sometimes but this one was as soft as us. Now we are crashing. Life's a beach eh!!

Fun & games in the night

Oh what fun we had last night - after bedtime! Someone went out very late, and that someone left the dog barrier ajar to the forbidden areas. Hey, what are we to do? Investigate of course..... and boy what did we find - chips, subway papers, plates, drinks, mouthguard retainer box - and on and on. Eventually the big human came through all bleary eyed and sent us out to wee. We took ages to do that 'cos we were having such a good time, but eventually we gave in , did our business and then the big softie allowed us on the big bed for the rest of the night. Boy did we sleep after all that excitement. Goodness knows what happened to the mess - but we were 'blameless' - just being Beagles after all. Sometimes it's such fun being a beagle.

The beach!!

Today, Wednesday, the humans took us to the beach - and let us off the lead. We're getting pretty good at coming when we are called now - of course we go back because treats await us, but hey what's a bribe between friends. We love the beach but are not too sure about that water stuff which keeps on coming backwards and forwards. Other dogs go in but not us, are we missing something??, maybe one day.
After the beach we were taken for a hydrobath. We hate hydrobaths. I (Tilly) simply can't see the point. Soon as possible I find something to roll in to get me back to normal. Tara just whinges, she doesn't seem to like rolling in smelly stuff though.

Tuesday

We went to a new place for walkies today - a place where we could be off the leads, and it was really good. Then the humans went for lunch and we sat with them by the river. Although we tried our best we could not persuade them to give us anything.

Sunday

We had a great Sunday ... we went to the Beagles Christmas Party. The humans have this club (WA Beagle Club) and we often meet with other humans and other Beagles. This party was great. I (Tara) was entered in the 'waggiest tail' competition - but as I wasn't consulted about I decided not to wag my tail!!
Tilly was entered in the 'biscuit hunt' competition - which is perfect for her as she is a greedy guts. She found the biscuit in no time at all - a record I guess - but then didn't fancy it to eat. As the hunters had to demolish the biscuit too she was disqualified....... she brought the biscuit to me though and we shared it - good fun.
We had a great run out in a huge park and really enjoyed the day - exhausting but brill!

Fri - found the mischief

This is us NOT chewing the reticulation - until he is not watching!!

Poor me

Friday 6 Nov. I (Tara) was sick this morning ... I think it was a sock! I must learn that everything lying around within grasp is not food. Luckily the male human cleared it up and cuddled me. I think we are very lucky living here - now I'm off to find some more mischief!

Sunday morning

Today we had a really long lie in - we conned the humans into letting us crash out on their bed - they had been out last night and were sleepy, so really it was a pushover.
We do have to be a little careful there because we have eaten two sheets off their bed this week alone. I can't see what the issue is - what's a little tear here and there?

Oh fun

We are destroying all the papers in the recycling bin ....... what fun.

Our world

Hello we are Tilly McDonald Smith and Tara McDonald Smith. We are both Beagles - very lucky beagles because we have found ourselves a home where we can cause mayhem and our humans still love us. We try to be good, of course, but what we think is good and what the humans think is good is not always the same. Sometimes it is - and then we get treats!
We have decided to write about our lives here, and if any other beagles want to share in it - well there is a challenging selection process which we will monitor.