Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
I don’t think Piper was always eating everything but as she got older, her appetite expanded. Kind of like when you become an expert at something and crave a bigger challenge. That’s how she was with eating. Food? Nah, that’s for peasants.
Piper ate a lot of things that should not be eaten. Well, I take that back. One of them was actually food, I suppose. Have you ever seen a seahorse? One random day we found one on the shore, it had already died somehow. It’s not every day that you find a seahorse so I brought it up to the house to, I don’t know, have it on display. Yeah, that didn’t last long. Just for a moment Piper was left on the porch of the beach house and you can guess what happened when she was unsupervised out there. Seabiscuit went bye bye.
She’s eaten books, papers, napkins, as seen in this library book I eventually had to pay for.
I’ll just get this out as quickly as I can: She’s also had a used tampon in her mouth. I’ll spare you any pictures. The lengths that pup went to digest things was pretty impressive. I guess she had the stomach for some wild things, I’ll give her that! Everything was ranked #1 in her belly, but she will always be #1 in my heart.
Piper loved being in the woods. She’d go to the nearest forest anytime the opportunity presented itself, which was more than I liked, that’s for sure. Not because I wanted her to be unhappy, it’s just that I worried for her. Her nose got her into some pretty delicate situations. Maybe she was chasing a rabbit. Or I had looked the other way for a few seconds too long. Then boom, she was off and running!
Here I go again on my own… traveling down the only road I’ve ever known…
It’s a blessing and a curse having a beagle. On the one hand, I love that Piper was very good at hunting without a single session of training. But on the other hand, like I said, it made me nervous because she wasn’t really afraid of anything. In Tennessee that’s mostly OK where wildlife is concerned. But once we moved to Florida, all I could imagine was Piper having a run-in with a gator or a snake and how I’d manage explaining to authorities that Piper dominated them both.
OK, I’m just being silly. Piper never had an encounter with an alligator or snake (that I’m aware of) but the most scared I ever felt was a day she was gone for 4 hours on the coast of Florida where there are gators, snakes, and bears. I searched, my whole family searched (we were in the middle of a beach family reunion), but we all came up empty. It wasn’t until later that day we got a call from a nearby vet’s office that someone had picked up a beagle trotting along the only paved road in the area. She had travelled miles and someone miraculously found her and took care of her for one night. I picked her up the next day. To this day, she never told me what she did or where she went, I guess that’s a secret I’ll never know!
I miss my wandering beagle. Even when she played Houdini, she always somehow made it back home. I loved being with her and I don’t think there will ever be another one for me like Piper.
Piper was as curious as a private investigator and this characteristic of hers showed up a lot. When she was a puppy and the washer was open, she couldn’t resist giving the dishes a quick once-over before they were washed.
Many years later but the same curiosity. How cute, right? But it wasn’t always adorable, I’ll admit. Her being food driven meant I had to be strategic about everything in the home and in the last few years, in the camper.
Treats seemed to help guide her decision-making so it was smart to have a few on hand at any given moment (and I didn’t have them on hand enough!).
It’s kind of weird now that I don’t have that awesome, food-driven dog to watch out for. I’m less cautious setting Asia’s (my other dog) food out in the morning or afternoon. I can leave books on a table and not fear for their shredded safety. But I miss Piper terribly still. Her threat of chewing things kept me on my toes and now I just think about her every time I see something she would’ve loved to destroy or eat.
For Piper, it was the exact opposite! For every dog she met (and every dog was inferior to her highness 👑), she loved people more. She never told me exactly what it was about dogs that annoyed her so maybe let’s just say she was a diva… kind of like her dad. 🔥
Piper, go play with that dog! Nah. Piper, help that dog find some rabbits! No thanks. People, on the other hand, she loved people almost as much as she loved chasing rabbits.
My family, friends, neighbors in Nashville, she’d come wagging her tail to them, hoping for a treat or a friendly pat on the head. Ok, it was mostly for a treat but still, she loved having her belly scratched. The picture below is Piper trotting towards my neighbor one cold January morning, which is saying a lot because if you’ve been following along with these posts, you know how Piper despised being cold! He and his wife loved Piper and she loved them. See her tail up in the air and her ears swaying with excitement? She couldn’t wait to visit with Bobby and Joyce.
Piper was part of a flock that flocks together. I’m talking about my siblings, their spouses, my parents, my nieces and nephews. When we get a dog, it’s us welcoming a new member to the family. Piper fit right in and made it easy to love her. We’ve always loved beagles going all the way back to my childhood when we got Belle, I was only 4 years old. So Piper carried on the Wilder beagle tradition and trust me when I say there were plenty of belly rubs, treats, and smiles to go around for her and because of her. Here’s a pic with Piper and my sister and another with my dad. I love that we are dog people.
Piper had a personality as big as her ears and now her beagle legacy is firmly established. Spunk. Drive. Sass. Love. She had it all.
Last month I had to make the gut-wrenching decision of when to bring Piper to the vet one last time. Without a doubt the hardest decision I’ve faced and even up to the very last moment, I still wasn’t sure about the timing. My dad was with me, at the request of Piper, of course. She wanted her favorite grand dog dad there, probably because she knew I’d be a mess because I’d been a mess all day. All week, really. Carrying her everywhere not as much because she needed it but because I did. I needed her close. I had to feel her warmth. Pet her course fur. Twirl her ears. Nap with her, not totally sure when it would be our last nap together. I still remember our first nap together.
After bringing her home, in the first week or so I’d called my sister in a little bit of a panic, wondering if Piper was going to need my attention all day every day. My sister helped calm my anxiety and sometime around then, maybe the next day or the next, I needed a nap. So naturally, I just laid flat on my stomach on the carpeted living room floor. Piper curled up between my legs and there we were, taking our naps together… a habit that went on for the next 15 years.
I’ve never been a decisive person. How was I supposed to take this step with Piper’s life? It’s all I could think about and as I contemplated everything, Thursday kept coming to my mind. It’s not the day I wanted, heck I wanted Piper to live forever. But it was her health. Her not eating. Not being able to walk or barely standing up at all. Thursday. I called the vet to ask about Thursday. Who’s ever ready for that kind of vet visit? I certainly wasn’t. A few last nights of sleep. A few last snuggles.
The veterinarian, the vet techs, the staff were all so gracious, respectful, giving Piper the dignity a good beagle deserves. Thursday. The same day Hulk Hogan died and somehow I thought that was fitting for Piper since I was her #1 Piper-maniac.
Piper with my niece
A couple of sweet things happened the weekend following. Anyone that knows me probably knows I like to dance. Contra dance specifically. These occasions happen twice a month, every other Friday. It so happened that the Friday after the Thursday there was a dance. If I had ever needed smiling faces, fun dances, and a couple of hours to lose myself in music and do-se-do’ing my neighbor, that was it. Like I said, those dances happen twice a month, sometime’s only once a month if there’s a holiday or bad weather (hurricane’s and whatnot, since we’re in Florida after all). Two weekends in a row NEVER happens. But for whatever reason on this weekend, there was not just one dance. There was another one on Saturday night, too. Two nights in a row, what!? Two dances on two consecutive nights and I needed that second one as much as I needed the first.
That would have been enough but then Sunday at church one of my favorite singers was on stage helping lead worship. I don’t even know this person but it’s a voice that honestly makes me stop singing just so I can listen. It’s as if God knew exactly what I’d need, go figure! As sad as I had been about Piper and the whole week of deciding with what to do, that voice and all the dancing was a simple reminder that everything was going to be OK.
I didn’t want to say goodbye. I wanted Piper to be happy again. I wanted her to run again. To eat again. I wanted one more night with her. One more weekend. I still miss her so much and I’m so grateful I got to call her mine for her whole life. She was a challenge don’t get me wrong, she made me work, but she will always be my #1 first pup. I can hardly believe my life doesn’t include her anymore. But there will be more dances. More church singing. More sweet memories that make it a little more bearable.
I love you Piper. You were the bestest of beagles and I hope you’re chasing all the rabbits in Heaven. Today’s post is one of 15 I’m writing to celebrate and remember Piper’s 15 years on earth. Here are the first 5…
Out of the Wilderness 