Christmas 2010

We fancied having a nice quiet Christmas Day this time around, but if you’ve got Beagles and the house is full of the smell of cooking turkey, the only way to get some peace is to tire them out and fill their full tummies. For this reason there was no lie-on in Christmas morning! We ejected our two lazy boneses out of bed at a ridiculously early hour (it was certainly well before noon, which is the natural Winter rising time for the pampered beagle)  and sent them straight into the garden. As luck would have it they spent a few minutes doing their perimeter checks, then got into a  frenzied chase and wrestling match.

They came in from their morning workout assuming they’d get to harass us at the breakfast table then go for a supplementary pre-walk nap just like always, but  I bundled them straight into the car and took them to the beach for an hour’s run on the sand. All the chasing and wrestling in the garden hadn’t drained their batteries and as you’ll see from the video the three of us made several unsuccessful “stealth” attacks on the seagulls. It’s worth noting at this point that none of Beanie & Biggles’ seagull raids have ever been successful. I see three reasons for this:

• They’re usually tied to me via the Cani-x belt, and I really cramp their style
• The Beagle concept of “stealth” is different from ours; it involves baying at full volume the second you spot your intended prey, and certainly well before you’re close enough to offer any threat of capture
• Seagulls are totally without honor and think nothing of cheating (aka flying) to avoid becoming a Beagle Happy Meal.

So anyway, we came back from the beach empty handed but just in time for our Christmas dinner. The two B’s got their own version of the traditional Christmas nosh, including a generous helping of Brussels sprouts. I must confess I had serious doubts about the wisdom of giving sprouts to the Bigglet, but so far there hasn’t been any discernible increase in the frequency or potency of his farts. Wish I could say the same about my own.

Beagle Christmas 2010 from Paul Roberts on Vimeo.

After the belly-banger came the opening of the pressies:

Bundy’s rawhide Christmas stockings were a great hit!

Beanie quickly released her Crazy Critter Raccoon

Biggles took a bit longer to unwrap his fox but he was the first to discover it had double squeakers

This present had Beanie puzzled

What could it be?

Aha! A special deaf and flightless species of duck!

Finally the Beagle stealth attack succeeds!

I wonder if Biggles remembers the duck he had as pup?

He’s bigger than he was then and the duck has turned purple, but there’s that same murderous intent to give it a thorough squeaking

With all the activity over and a stomach full of turkey just starting to digest, our two Beaglets felt their eyelids getting heavy. We were similarly sedated by the Christmas pud, and the four of us fell into comas and missed some of the (ahem) “stunning” Xmas telly.

What do Beagle boys dream of on Christmas day?

Peace at last. If you don’t mind the snoring!