Category — Our Beagle Gracie

Last week Darlene from SewGalCal, contacted me about using a photo of Gracie as part of her new Pets on Quilts Show she is holding August 7th-21st.  I said sure….and here she is…

Here’s a blurb from Darlene about her contest, “While the primary purpose is to have fun, I also hope to encourage adoption of pets living in animal shelters, as well as encourage others to find ways to help (e.g. make a pet bed or quilt for an animal living in a shelter, or for a fundraiser to help a shelter).”  I was definitely in after I read that! 

Let me tell you a bit about my beagle, Gracie….
We got Gracie a little over a year ago.  A lady, Peg, was boarding Gracie and the couple who owned her never came to pick her up.  The owners were contacted but said that they were getting a divorce and no longer wanted her.  In Gracie’s short life she had been to a home, a shelter, a home and now was at the kennel where she was being boarded. 

Gracie was a barker and Peg decided to try to help Gracie overcome that before she took her to the shelter as Peg couldn’t keep her either.  One day, Peg was out walking her six of boarding dogs at once and a friend of mine commented on the dogs.  Peg explained Gracie’s situation and said she was trying to find a home for her.  My friend knew I wanted a dog and immediately told me about Gracie. 

After  much deliberation, and begging on my part, my husband relented.  He didn’t grow up with a house dog and wasn’t sure if he would like it. 

We have not regretted it for a minute (well maybe a minute…she still has an infatuation with the garbage can).  She is not the perfect dog…but she sure has brought some light hearted moments to our family. 

When I picked up Gracie from Peg she explained that beagles are active dogs and NEED to be walked.  She said currently Gracie was walking 3 miles a day.  Now that, scared me a little…I knew I would be the only on in the family who would walk her….and walk her I have.  It’s been a good thing, because in the process, I walked off 40 pounds! 

Gracie is a MUCH better trainer than Bob or Jillian from The Biggest Loser….she doesn’t yell at me or make me feel awful.  She just quietly gives me that guilty stare until I take her for a walk….She’s been good for my hubby too.  He’s a workaholic and Gracie “guilty stares” him into laying on the couch so she has someone to snuggle with. 

I REALLY admire Peg for working with Gracie because she is not a barker anymore.  I REALLY admire people who make life long commitments to shelter dogs.  I am happy to say that this will be Gracie’s last home. 

Gracie loves quilts.  She will snuggle under my daughter’s blanket and cozy up at her feet.  If I am laying out quilt blocks on the floor, she is sure to be in the middle of it.  If I lay a quilt out to snap a photo, she’s there too.  You can bet that Gracie will find her way into Pets on Quilt Show.

If you want to know more about Darlene’s contest, Pets on Quilts Show, head on over and check it out.

You may remember reading about our dog Gracie in past posts…well she made the blog again!  Take a look at the photo and see what she “earned” for herself.

Since we adopted Gracie 3 months ago, we have been trying to adjust to each other.  We learned that Gracie has to sleep in her kennel at night or she roams the house from bedroom to bedroom waking everyone up.  We learned that the kennel must be in one of our bedrooms or she will howl. 

We recently learned a few more things….she has serious seperation anxiety when we are gone.  All the experts call it seperation anxiety…my husband just thinks the dog has anger management issues about us being gone.  She has started dumping out the garbage and dragging it through the house and going to the potty on the carpet.  We tried all sorts of things; new garbage cans, relocating garbage cans, and walking her for a long time before we leave.  All of these things help for a day but after that she is back to her trash diving self.  She has even managed to learn to open the cupboard to get to the garbage. 

So yesterday we bought her another kennel.  She already had one for upstairs for night time…now she has one for downstairs when we are gone during the day.  We don’t anticipate using it that much because we are homebodies, but at least now we won’t come home to garbage all over.  It makes me feel bad that she has to be in the kennel but enough is enough. 

Please don’t let this discourage anyone from adopting a dog…even though Gracie’s garbage diving is real annoying to deal with, she is still a pretty special dog and her goodness far out weighs this little set back.

Over the weekend we dog sat.  My husband wasn’t all for the idea (I literally had to beg to get a house dog) until I pointed out that when we go away, they will probably take Gracie for us.  That made the prospect a whole lot more appealing to him. 

Kobe, the dog we were sitting for, was adopted from the same home that Gracie, our beagle, came from so they get along great and are good friends…most of the time. 

Saturday I was busy quilting….   I got the blocks sewn together and had just finished  laying the blocks out on the dining room floor when flying into the room came Gracie and Kobe with their own little version of WWF wrestling. 

Of course my quilt blocks became the wrestling ring….Before we knew it, there were quilt blocks everywhere.  Luckily it is just a baby sized quilt so there weren’t many pieces. 

I casually took the camera and snapped a photo of the dogs wrestling while our daughter, Kalissa, yelled, “Mom why aren’t you stopping them!!”   I just smiled and said…”I’ll just blog about it.”  My life has gotten much less stressful since I started blogging…when things happen that I normally would have gotten frustrated about, like the day Gracie locked us out of the Suburban,  I just laugh and look at it as an opportunity to share a silly story with all of you.

I was working on my website www.makinglearningfun.com when I heard the first rumble of thunder.  I quickly ran and got the laundry off the clothesline.  I set the basket in the kitchen and went back to work on the website.

Two hours later I went out to the kitchen to start lunch and this is what I saw…. 

…our Beagle Gracie taking a nap right on top of the clean laundry!!   It seems our home now has a new scent for laundry…DOG!!