Adventures With Pearl™

Time flies fast. 4 years ago, a tiny 6 week old firecracker, a breath of fresh air entered our lives. Her name, Pearl. Pearl came at a time when our family was in upheaval. My dad was in the beginning stages of dementia, battling stage 1 bladder cancer and was recovering from a stroke. To add to the chaos, he managed to get Covid too when he was in the hospital.   They didn’t tell him his roommate had it until he went home. Because of this, our family came down with Covid too. In all the trauma, there was a bright spot. It was Pearl. Pearl allowed our family to focus on the joy she brought.  Life got better with Pearl in it.

Happy New Year all! The last two years have been trying, hard and difficult. A lot has happened. Whether it’s dealing with the loss of family members, and friends, navigating difficult relationships, there has been a constant positivity. That constant is Pearl. Whether she’s hogging the bed, going for our walks, licking my face, barking too much, she’s been there beside me. She's been helping me get through it all! Hopefully 2024 will be happier for the both of us and everybody.

They say beagles get calmer as they get older, nope not Pearl. She just turned 15 months old and Pearl’s been a handful lately.  Pearl’s adorable, loveable, but she sometimes can be a hell raiser. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in her beagle brain and why she gets into everything she sees. You name it, She’s chewed on or wants to chew on it. She destroyed our couch, torn up some of her toys, phones, quite a few pairs of my shoes, pens, pencils, walls, doors, quilts, chairs, pillows, blankets, 4 of my baseball hats, wall moldings, cardboard boxes, books, our living room shelves, her bedding, magazines, toilet paper, paper towels, clothing, 2 Wii sensor bars, router cords. Pearl also loves to get on tables, steal food and dig holes in the back yard. She has lots of chew toys, busy bones, bully rings, toys, but she seems to enjoy destroying my things more. She can’t be bored.  I take her for walks when I can, she plays fetch and tug of war with her toys often. She has lots ...

It’s been a year since Pearl joined her forever family. Where did the time go? Pearl came to us when she was 6 weeks old, barely the size of my hand. She came at a time when our family was going through a rough patch. When did Pearl become a 20 + lb. hyper hound who’s loud, chews on everything and destroys pens. When did Pearl get older?

It was one year ago today, the world got sweeter, happier. How, Pearl was born. Still can’t believe that she was barely the size of my hand when we got her, and she’s grown and a 1 year old. She drives me crazy sometimes getting into everything. But she’s brought joy to our lives and life’s better with her in it. Happy birthday sweetheart, Mom loves you so much!

The last three months have been super busy. Pearl’s been keeping me hopping. Getting Pearl to behave lately is like having a full-time job. Most of the time she’s an angel, but sometimes she can be hellbent and up for anything. Pearl’s a good pup, but lately she’s been tearing up stuff in the house and wants to get into everything she sees. What Pearl loves to get into most of all lately is my stuff and destroying pens. We can’t keep any pens on the table.  Pearl chews them up. No sooner than we put a pen down, Pearl gets it in her mouth and destroys them. I don’t get it, why does she want to chew pens? A cheetah may not be the fastest animal in the world compared to Pearl when she’s trying to get away with my stuff when I go to get it back.  Trying to catch her lately, is like trying to hold running water in your hands, good luck with it. She’s chewed up 4 pairs of my shoes, 3 baseball hats, books, our couch, wall moldings, paper towels, door frames, her bedding, the home ph...

I wish I could take the past 6 months and have a do-over of some of it. Our family has been through a lot lately and it has  been a challenging few months. While we were having our share of troubles, a blessing came to our family. The name of the blessing: Pearl. Pearl’s sometimes a handful.  She’s noisy, gets into everything, hyper and sometimes she can be a stinkerbutt. Pearl’s also comical, smart, playful, loyal, loving, a cutie pie, an energetic distraction to have around. Pearl has made our family aware that even when life looks chaotic, laughter, lightness can be found.  Whether she’s playing fetch and tug of war with her toys, cuddling up with us, greeting us with cuddles and kisses in the morning, chewing on everything she can, Pearl has made life a little more busy, interesting. Without Pearl, I do not know how I would have gotten through the last 6 months. Thank you Pearl for bringing lightness, love, hope, joy a breath of fresh air to our family.  Love you...

A little misty eyed today. It has been 4 months since Pearl came to her forever home, joined our family. In 12 days, Pearl turns 6 months old. Where has the time gone? Yes, it is nice to watch her grow up into a beautiful, smart dog. But it is also a little sad that I can’t savor the moments when she first came to us a little longer. She has a long way to go to being an adult pup, but a part of me misses the early days. Although it would be nice for her to get out of her crazy, hyper, noisy, chewing phase, a part of me does not want to rush it. I will never forget when she came. She just turned 6 weeks old. I cradled her, rocked her, sang her to sleep in her crate. She was so innocent, precious, little.  When did Pearl become a 16 lb. noisy pup who climbs on the table, aggravates her sister, chews on everything. Time flies fast. Enjoy, savor and flavor every moment you can.

Even though Pearl’s only 4 months old, she has taught me some life lessons. She has taught me about unconditional love. I could have the worst day in the world.  Nothing goes right and I’m in a bad mood. She’ll be right by my side, licking my face and making it better by cuddling with me. Pearl doesn’t care how much money I have, what I look like.  She wakes me up every day with kisses and cuddles. She’s always ready to play. Pearl has taught me about patience. Whether it is house training her or dealing with her after she has chewed on everything she can, it take a lot of patience to deal with the 4 legged hellion. Pearl has chewed on the couch, chairs, shoes, paper, doors, pillows, cords, quilts, walls, her dog beds.   You name it, she has s chewed on it or tried to chew on it. Even though she knows to go outside, she has left little presents for us to clean up. She also has gotten on the kitchen table and stolen our dinner too. Pearl has taught me about finding joy in ...

This week, Pearl’s 3 months old & she already has a mind of her own. Pearl’s a cutie pie, smart & a great pup most of the time. But sometimes she can be a sneaky, noisy, loveable stinkerbutt! Found out this week she chewed up the phone cord on the house phone in the living room. She also destroyed the sensor bar for the Wii. Luckily I can still get one. This week she tore up part of her bed in her crate & was taking the stuffing out of it. I’ve caught her trying to chew on the furniture & everything that she sees. She has plenty of toys to play with & chew. Instead she wants to chew on things she\"s not supposed to. She aggravates Madison our other dog sometimes while they’re both in the backyard pen. We have to take them out sometimes separately just so that Madison can do her business in peace. She wants Madison to play with her. Madison’s 12 years old, blind and not interested in playing that much. Are all dogs as hyper at this age, or is it just her...

I finally figured out why God made beagle puppies so cute. It’s hard to get mad at them when they make a mess or misbehave. Pearl just turned 11 weeks old yesterday. She’s old enough to start reinforcing potty training. Getting Pearl potty trained has sometimes been a challenge.   Most of the time she’s been a great pup at going outside. But sometimes she wants to do something else. We’ve been training her to walk to the door & go outside when we jingle the jinglebells on the doorknob. Most of the time she walks to the door. Other times she gets distracted and sometimes it’s easier for me  to carry her outside. Most of the time she goes outside without any incident.  Other times she has accidents or doesn’t let us know when she needs to go out. We have pee pads around the house, they only work for awhile.  Sometimes she’ll mess on the floor instead and I’ve caught her trying to chew on the pads. Today she had a couple of little incidents. She left a mess in ...

It’s been 3 weeks since Pearl came to our family. So far it’s been quite an adjustment getting used to a wee one. The first few nights were hard getting her used to her forever home. The first night, I slept in a chair the living room where her crate is. I sang and rocked her to sleep the first few nights with a mariachi song and Tony Bennetts version of Moonglow. She loves it when you cuddle with her and rock her to sleep. That technique worked for a little awhile. She sleeps for a couple of hrs., then whine to go out or decide it was time to play. Pearl has been pretty good about bathroom breaks, so far. We let her out her to go do her business before she goes back in her crate for the night. We’ve jingled some bells that are on the door handle when it’s time for her to go out. Occasionally she’ll have an accident, though. But if we get her on a schedule that everybody can live with, hopefully she should let us know when nature calls. Is it normal for a 2 month old pup to not sleep t...

Welcome! Last week we got a new family member, a 6 week old puppy. Her name is Pearl and she is now 7 weeks old. We got her as a lap dog for my dad. I forgotten how hard, sometimes challenging, exhausting, yet rewarding it is to raise a puppy. Pearl has brought joy to our lives in so many ways. It has been 25 years since we had one this young. The last beagle puppy we had was named Kelsey. Kelsey was with us for 14 1/2 years. From house training to late nights getting used to a new family, it will be one heck of a journey. Come follow our adventures as Pearl navigates life with our family.