Bailey on the Run

Have I mentioned how much I love my doggie?  She is a complete dork, but, then again, so am I.  She makes me laugh with her outrageous antics; she cheers me up when I am low, she accidentally tickles me with her chilly little nose. 

M. and I adopted her from a local shelter last August.  She had just been spayed, had kennel cough, and wasn't housebroken.  The ~ year of her life before she was left at the shelter is a mystery to us.  Allegedly, she was dumped by her owner on a friend who could not keep her, and she ended up at the shelter.  Coincidentally, we went to look at dogs a day or so after she had been brought in.  M. and I chose three dogs to spend some time with at the shelter, and she was one of them.  A beagle wasn't the kind of dog I had in mind, but she suckered me in with her sweet, brown eyes.   The shelter didn't know what her name had been before, so the dedicated staff there called her Daisy -- a name that I like well enough, but my sister already has a dog named Daisy.  I wanted to take her home right then and there, but M. and I agreed to go home, think about it some more, sleep on it, and then decide.  At the end of the next day we were back at the shelter and filling out forms.  M. picked her name.

 In some ways, she's been a challenging little booger.  Housebreaking was a bit of chore, but nothing too horrible.  Occasionally, she still has an accident in the house, but, if she does, that's almost always our fault.  The bigger issue with her has been some pretty severe separation anxiety.  We have been working with a behavioral specialist and our vet for months, and it's still tricky.   We've tried and still do try kongs, music, gradual departures, in and outs, etc.

I love her, though, and so does M.  She is the first doggie - the first pet, really - that he's ever had.  She is a goofball and the fuzziest member of our family.  And she's the first subject of M's first photo shoot with my new camera.