Christmas Beagles

When the RAsburry household celebrated Christmas on 21 December (yes, a few days early, due to other plans for Christmas Eve & Day this year), the whole family got involved. Yes, the *whole* family, including our "Christmas Beagles."

Here Porthos and Gimli sport their Christmas collars, which they received as gifts last year. (It kind of looks like Porthos over did it on the rum-spiked eggnog and needed the couch to hold him up, but I assure you, that was not the case, at least for Porthos. :-)


Here our "Christmas Beagles" considered playing "Santa Claus" to hand out the presents, and thus take the job away from Son RAsburry, our traditional "Santa Claus." (They're lying down because they were getting impatient from all the pictures being taken while they waited for the treats that I was holding to keep them in place.)


Each of our "Christmas Beagles" even got to open a present - a pair of chew curls each, one (chew curl, that is) basted in chicken and the other basted in beef. It was great fun to watch each of them tear into their present. Yes, the chew curls were placed in boxes and wrapped with care using old Christmas wrapping paper that we didn't mind being torn to shreds. But what was even funnier was watching how Porthos wanted a) to guard his chew curl from Gimli, who was really too preoccupied with his own chew curl, and b) to hide his chew curl for safe keeping (a future snack?) under his bed cushion, behind the couch, or even under the Christmas tree. At first, he spent more time dashing around looking for a safe place to chew than he did actually chewing the darn thing.

Here's one of Porthos' ideas for securing and chewing on his curl. He wormed his way under the couch cover at the back of the couch, then squirmed to the right arm under the white pillow, and finally settled into his "chewing position" on the floor, wrapped up snuggly and securely inside the couch cover. (This picture is from today, but Son RAsburry caught him doing the same thing right after opening his present yesterday.)


And here is the wide shot to see just how safe - and "far" - Porthos got from Gimli.


And when Gimli took a break from chewing to look back and see what Porthos was doing, Porthos dutifully growled as if to say, "Don't even think about it, pal!" But Gimli, the ever-dominant sibling, just went on chewing his own curl (and no doubt thinking, "What on earth is that nut of a brother doing under that couch cover?")