I’m among many who were tickled when the always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride Beagle became top dog at this year’s Westminster Kennel Club show! The All-American Beagle, of Snoopy fame, has gone decades without winning the coveted place, until Uno took the prize last month! Uno stole the hearts of many in the crowd at Madison Square and watching at home on the tube, just as so many of his kin have stolen the hearts of millions of dog loving families.

Like so many, I have a soft spot for Beagles. I’ve already told the story of Sadie, the Beagle who get me started on this line of graphite pet portraits. Just before Christmas I finished a portrait of Gerry, actually a Beagle mix, for the Pavlak family. Gerry’s dad wrote:

The picture is absolutely georgeous. It is amazing that you were able to capture him so well…. Thanks again for everything, we had quite a few compliments on the drawing, when we took it to get it framed.

I asked Mark Pavlak for Gerry’s story, since I’ve learned every rescued dog seems to have one. He writes:

Gerry’s Story:

We finally decided it was time to get a dog for the family. We wanted to get a beagle, since I had some experience with them growing up as a kid. We looked in the local shelters for our dog and their weren’t any beagles showing up. A few weeks had passed by and finally a beagle came up in the local paper. My wife and kids rushed over to take a look, but unfortunately the dog had been adopted already, talk about disappointment! A few more weeks passed by and and no beagles. What are we going to do?

My son happened to look in the local paper one day and found a beagle available in town. We called first to make sure he was still available. The person at the shelter said he was available, but that he had many problems and wasn’t sure if he would be the right fit for us. We rushed over right away to see “Gerry”. He looked so small in his cage, but his tail was wagging a mile a minute when we stopped in front of him. When we took him out to play with us, he picked up his little Ernie doll and strutted out of the cage, like he owned the place. He won us over immediately. We signed the papers for him on that Thursday and he home with us on Monday. Gerry did have a few problems when he came to our house, but they were fixable with a little time, effort and a lot of love.

Who wouldn’t have problems if you were abandoned and plunked in strange place without friend or family? My hat is off to folks who look past the “many problems” of pets who end up in shelters and adopt anyway. Thanks to love of family, Gerry and many other like him, live to tell the tale — or is it tail?