Beagles: Pets or Alarm Clocks? You Decide!

Aren't alarm clocks awful? Maybe I'm just a mean, angry, morning-type person, but I hate them. If I even hear one going off on TV that sounds like mine, I get all fidgety.

However, I think the worst "alarm clock" would have to be that of a Beagle. Most people don't think of Beagles as alarm clocks, probably. But that's probably because they've never had the pleasure of letting one live with them. Butter the beagle is about 8 months old now. She's cute as a button...until she opens her mouth. She's finally started sleeping through the night...most of the time. She still wakes up before my actual alarm goes off and generally wakes me up around 6:00 (an ungodly hour!).

This morning at 4am she started going nuts. I tried ignoring her and hoped that she would go back to sleep, but I knew from the start that it wasn't the kind of bark that stops after a few minutes--she was just getting warmed up. After 10 or 15 minutes of howling and barking, I finally got up, prepared to let her go outside to potty.

At that point, Mercy went to the back door and started sniffing and freaking out a little bit. I kind of got concerned that there might be someone at the backdoor, so I quickly locked the deadbolt, flipped on the porch light, and peeked out the blinds. All I could see was a happy little tail wagging as little Rodie started scratching at the door. Rodie is my neighbor's dog. If someone were to put him in an "ugliest dog" contest, he'd win. Hands down. He's a beagle too and Butter actually used to live with him. I guess he missed her and decided to come over and visit at 4 in the morning.

I went ahead and let Butter outside for the rest of the night/morning so that she would shut up and I could get some sleep. This morning when I woke up, I peeked outside and Rodie was still there. At noon when I went home and checked, he was still there--lying right outside the back door, waiting for a perfect opportunity to dart inside my house. He's never been in my house before. I don't know why he would think he would be welcome there. He's like the Kato Kalin of dogs, I think.