Sniffergate

My humans celebrated my turning 10 with my annual birthday feast of noodles (for long life), fried calamari (in honour of my 1st favorite toy), fruit from the fridge (this year, it was blueberries), and a birthday cake. Every year, the script remains unchanged: "Happy Birthday" is sung as I bellow out "Aroooos" and run round-and-round the room. I cannot believe that after 10 years, they still remain blind to the fact that my energetic scurrying is borne out of the need to protest the injustice and scandal of having to "sniff" my own feast year in and year out!

Sniffergate shenanigans aside, turning reflective is also another birthday tradition. As I turn 10, I look back and marvel at how I've moved up in this world. This was me when I was 13 weeks old. Back then, my only worldly possession was this plastic laundry crate, converted into my sleeping basket.

This is me today. I share a bed with my humans, have 6 pillows, am the proud owner of a tennis ball and bone collection, possess 3 outfits (Winter, Spring/Summer and Fall) and snow boots! I don't travel without my harness, backpack and water bowl. I have mastered the fine art of lounging, with a petbed in every room at my disposal.

Last but not least, I am also highly educated, having graduated from the The School of Sit, No and Bedstep Training!

At 10, I'm old enough to know that not all beagles are as lucky as me. Not all of my kind  have toys and forever homes, or humans who move halfway around the world and resolutely refuse to leave them behind. Sure, they have their momentary lapses of  "bad parenting", resulting in Sniffergate-type injustices. But at the end of the day, getting to eat the cupcake is just the frosting to an already wonderful life. Now, who would ever have thought a food-deprived beagle like me would ever admit that? Arooooooo!