Changing Roles

Most of the time Beanie & Biggles have clearly defined roles: Beanie handles drinking from unguarded cups, harassing people for food and instantly grabbing anything that falls on the floor; the Bigglet takes care of cuddles, socks and nicking things from tables and work surfaces. Sometimes however they like to swap some of their responsibilities, just to keep us on our toes.

Right now it’s Mr Biggles who’s the master of cups, but he doesn’t just drink from them like Beanie; he actually picks them up and takes them to his lair for a really thorough emptying and cleaning. This is no small achievement given that cups are designed to be held in human hands rather than Beagle jaws, but he manages it nonetheless.

When he’s finished with a cup, it’s truly spotless. It almost seems redundant to recover it from the corridor (or his bed) and put it in the dishwasher, but given that our two are due for a worming in a couple of weeks, it’s probably a good thing that we do.

Unfortunately Biggles’ new responsibilities don’t stop at cups, and Susan’s entirely to blame for this one. One morning she let him have a bit of scrambled egg and toast from her breakfast plate, and now it’s developed into a habit. The moment she gets up and goes anywhere near the kitchen he follows her with a hopeful look on his face and a slow but steady wag in his rear end. If he hasn’t yet been let out of his crate he whines and bangs on the door, fearing that he’s missing his chance of another taste of human breakfast. This is particularly problematic for me because Susan’s currently having intermittent pain from a training injury and gets up very, very early in the morning to foam roll and medicate. Regardless of the time, when she gets up and leaves the bedroom, his Biggleship has to follow or there’s trouble.

As for Beanie, well she’s become much more cuddly. I don’t know if it’s a hangover from the scary fireworks on Bonfire Night, but quite often now she’ll jump onto my lap and allow me to cuddle her. She still faces away from me as though to preserve some element of separation from the lower classes, but I can cuddle her, mess with her ears and even kiss her on the cheek without causing her to scarper. She’s even become a little more biddable and polite when treats are being handed out.

There’s been no swapping of roles when it comes to play time however. Beanie still likes a good rough-housing session with her rabbit-skin tugger, while Biggles prefers a gentler style of play with the Monkey toy I got him for his birthday. Monkey started out with 8 squeakers and after two months of play six of them are still fully operational. He wouldn’t have lasted a day with Beanie, but I’m always careful to keep him out of Beanie’s destructive jaws when Biggles has finished playing with him.

Beanie in action with her tugger.

It used to be covered in rabbit fur, but that was ripped out within the first couple of minutes!

Biggles gets to grips with Monkey. Despite appearances, his play sessions are much less physical than Beanie’s.