For those of you that have been following my saga as a reluctant dog whisperer, I have a bit of a holiday update.

As you may know, about two weeks ago now we took in a runaway beagle.  We put up signs, took her around the neighborhood to find her owners, took her to the vet to check for an electronic tag, called the animal shelter and then waited.  She was a house trained dog and the vet thought she was about two years old.  All in all a good dog as these things go.

Well we had plans to go out of town for a late Christmas and no one to watch the beagle or our other two dogs (one acquired a few days after the beagle).  So we took all three dogs packed in a van with our three kids.

We arrived at my wife's parents house where they have a dog and were babysitting another.  My wife's sister brought their two dogs as well, this brought the total to seven dogs home for the holidays, and through a couple different parties two other dogs showed up as visitors from time to time as well.

Jacking Up the Beagle

So anyway, my sister-in-law has a Jack Russell Terrier puppy that is about 6 months old.  He's a cute little dog and as we soon came to learn very  . .. . frisky.  The beagle is not fixed.  Since we took it in as stray, it didn't seem right to fix it when we hoped to get her home in a few days.  Maybe she's a show dog or a breeder or something.

The Jack Russell is just getting old enough and developed enough to get fixed, but isn't fixed yet.  As these things go, the Jack Russell of course is giving us great cause for concern as he sets out to prove the cycle of life is still working in the canine breed.

Now we are worried that our temporary pack of three dogs, might become a permanent pack of three and that the Beagle may have been Jacked Up by the terrier, which may stick us with a herd of Jack Beagles puppies in a few months.