Thought I’d let everyone know that not all dogs are as “gifted” and “smart” as the ones we see on the TV channel Animal Planet.  Yeah, I mean the ones that tear up the house when their owners are out or the ones that do all those cute tricks.  Yes there are dogs that can open the dishwasher and put dishes into it or pull off socks from human feet.  Geez…. Wonder how long that took to learn. Or is that all photo-shopped.  I even saw a Beagle do some serious tricks.  I actually wanted to talk to him or her to find out why so slavish. 

But I should introduce myself.  My name is Teega and I am an American Beagle, not the shorter British one.  I have lived with my present family for over two years and I was a rescue because someone surrendered me.  Not sure why as I am a great dog but I don’t think he could take care of me any longer.  In case you are wondering about the name it comes from the French, (Little Guy/Petit Gars), which is shortened to ti’gars in slang French.  I guess you could say I am bilingual but don’t get to use my French anymore as my family is English speaking. I had to learn a whole new language when I was adopted so take that you smarty pants dogs on Animal Planet or YouTube.

I was in a shelter for six months and then the daughter of my present owner fostered me for a number of months.  I know she put pressure on her mother to adopt me although at the time she had 4 cats and looked after a group of ferals.  A dog was the last thing she wanted but the person that lived with her was a dog guy and he really wanted a dog, any dog and she finally relented after a campaign by her daughter and partner. 

She used to have an English Pointer and I hear she was a great girl, unlike me.  Apparently I can be quite unruly outside when I am going for a walk.  They get very upset when I see another dog and want to defend my property even if I am not close to it.  One can never be certain if the other dog is going to invade my territory or not so I take preparatory measures.  I am just being cautious but they kind of freak out.  I love going for walks and they can’t get over the fact that as soon as I am outside my nose hovers just above the ground.  My sense of smell is thousands of times stronger than that of a human…. And much stronger than most dogs.  It is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to be a human outside and smell very little except the strongest terrible garbage.  I can smell the perfume on someone blocks away and if I am asleep upstairs in the house and there is a strange cat on the back deck I wake up and charge downstairs to let it know that I am the watchdog.  I sometimes have a window fight with a neighbor’s cat to let it know that I am in charge.  I also bark which gets the mistress upset. I call her that because I heard that is what someone said an owner of a dog or cat or other animal is called. I thought it was a nice word with lots of ssss’s but then I heard a couple of her friends speaking to her and the word mistress did not sound so nice.  I am a bit confused so might go back to using the word owner, or at least one of the owners.

I will be glued to the TV tomorrow to watch the swearing in ceremony of the next President of the United States, Donald Trump.  Not sure what the fuss is all about but I hear he does not have a dog and this is quite unusual.  I wonder if I could write him a letter to let him know that this is compulsory for a U.S. President.  Someone said it is good PR to have a cute dog walking alongside the Pres.  Not sure what PR is but I agree that everyone should have a dog as there are far too many languishing in shelters all over the world.  I know from firsthand experience and dogs like to be around people even if they, the people, are weird.