A Tale of Two Buddies

For Christmas of 2004, we decided to let Trevor have a dog. We took him to the Humane Society and let him pick out any dog he wanted. He chose a 3 year old Beagle named Buddy.

I grew up having Beagles and Beagle-mix dogs. I love Beagles. Big brown eyes, floppy ears… small enough to not be intimidating but big enough to not be yappy. Unfortunately, Buddy was not a good Beagle. He pooped in Sophia’s room (something which she is still indignant about), ran away twice, scared the pee out of my beloved Miss Daisy (literally), and was, in general, a nuisance. Had we known about Buddy’s “issues” before we filled out the adoption paperwork, we would have chosen another dog. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us that he had been turned in for behavior issues until after I handed over my application and check for $100.

(Yes, I’m still bitter about it.)

After just one week, even Trevor was ready to give up. He said that he would like to take Buddy back to the Humane Society and while I normally encourage Trevor to not give up on his endeavors, this was one time I did not mind going along with his desire to quit. We took Buddy back, and for months afterward, Sophia would tell anyone who would listen about what a naughty dog Buddy was.

So it was rather surprising when she decided to name her favorite stuffed dog — a Ty cocker spaniel that her Pop Pop gave her for Christmas one year — Buddy. She loves her Buddy, and usually won’t go to sleep without him. Today when I went to wake her up, she had him locked in a tight embrace, and I thought it was so cute…

I am sure we will revisit the idea of having a dog again someday (probably sooner rather than later), but for right now, Sophia’s Buddy is much more my kind of dog.