Piper Part 5… T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

If you’re just jumping in with these Piper posts, I’ll catch you up real fast. Last week my awesome, adorable, mischievous beagle Piper went on to her next life: being awesome, adorable, and mischievous in Heaven. We were together for 15 years, her birthday was September 10th 2009, born with a litter of puppies in Franklin, Tennessee. When I say that adopting her was and will always be one of my favorite things about life on earth, we don’t really have time to go over all the reasons why. But she was special, I’ll leave it at that. As a way to celebrate Piper, I’m writing 15 posts since she was 15 years old. This is the 5th, here are the first four.

Piper – She’s Gone Forever.

Piper – The Heat Is On

Piper – You Make Me Wanna Roll My Windows Down and Cruise

Piper – The Beginning of An Era

Piper had a nose for rabbits. There wasn’t any other animal she was interested in chasing. Not deer. Not squirrels. Oh, she did like to dig for moles. The first video is her very strong drive for rabbits, then a pic of her and Asia on the hunt for a mole.

But she also had a nose for trouble. If there was a way she could shake things up (or just break things 🥴) she would find it. She was the beagle version of Dennis the Menace. I guess in a way it was part of her charm. She could be super sweet one minute and the moment you turn your head, she’s knocked down your plate of dinner. But I could never stay mad at her for long. That face. Those ears. She worked it to get back in my good graces every single time.

This first incident was when we were living in the camper, she was around 14 years old. I had stepped out of the camper for a moment and came back to find this.

While it’s a funny story now, in the moment wasn’t anything but. She was panting and if something was done quickly, she might’ve run out of fresh air. Plus, the rim of those treat jars is very rigid so removing it took some thinking. The first step was to make a hole so she can breathe good air. After that, the process of removing it took precision, scissors, and patience from both myself and Piper. Thankfully, we were able to remove it and of course, it should be said that every single treat that was in the jar was gobbled up by Piper, which is the whole reason she got her head stuck in the first place!

My dog ate my homework. This literally could be the excuse my niece used at school if she had wanted to. One day, which was a lot like many other days, a Piper left to her own devices led to mischief in the most epic fashion. Opening cabinets, chewing toilet paper, or in this case– making a mess of school books and notepads! Piper had a few unsupervised minutes in the back yard and she made the best of it. She found school work after my niece had been studying back there. And Piper has always loved eating paper. So why wouldn’t she take this opportunity to have a meal?

If this picture had a title, it would be “That time I chewed up a book from the library.” I don’t think I need to explain anymore about this one, pretty much nailed it with her look and the torn pages, huh?

The little ragamuffin was resourceful, too. I’ll conclude today’s post with two pictures. The first one shows how determined she is to get what and get where she wants. The last photo is my attempt to keep her from getting what and getting where she wants. How many pieces of furniture does it take to thwart the plans of a beagle? If you know, comment below because nothing I ever did really ever worked. 🐶🧗🏻‍♀️

-Out of the Wilderness

Piper Part 4 – She’s Gone Forever.

January 2010. That was when I became a dog dad to the cutest little beagle puppy. Happy Tails, where she was before I adopted her, had named her Piper and I thought it was the absolute perfect name so when we became a family of two, I didn’t change her name. Piper. The biggest ears, the most curious personality, the powerful nose.

How fast can 15 years go by? If I were to list all the things she and I have been through, places we’ve visited, stories we made together, this blog would go on for weeks and weeks. We became regulars at the Nashville dog parks. I learned she wasn’t a fan of other dogs but a friendly guy there offered her a bite of a banana, so I learned she liked bananas.

About a month after I adopted her, I knew I needed a fence. She was still small enough that I could catch her but there was a sense that she’d be chasing rabbits for the rest of her life and the time was coming where I wouldn’t be fast enough to keep up with her agility and her desire to run.

Over the years, Piper and I (and Asia, too) became best buds. In fact, I can’t imagine my time in Nashville without her, although I had a previous life where I lived in a suspicious apartment complex a few miles from downtown Nashville and a whole circle of friends I haven’t spoken to in ages. Pre-Piper. And now I’m starting a new life post-Piper. Hard to believe it, to be honest. Last week I had to say goodbye, hugging her one last time.

If you’re just finding my blog, I’m in the midst of writing 15 posts– one for every blessed year of Piper’s life. Check on previous posts below and check back often as I reminisce about my best beagle friend, Piper.

Piper – The Heat Is On

Piper – You Make Me Wanna Roll My Windows Down and Cruise

Piper – The Beginning of An Era

-Out of the Wilderness

Piper Part 3 – The Heat Is On

Snow. Sun. Cold. Hot. Seasons came and went but I learned one thing pretty quickly. Piper did not like being cold. This became evident the first winter we were together and every winter after that. You see, we had this little space heater and Piper and I both were pretty obsessed with it. Many a’night we’d huddle by the heater to watch TV, read, or just stay warm.

She was my warm weather dog and I loved her for that because I’m a warm weather person, too. It might be that I was born in Key West and Florida weather is in my blood, I don’t know. But she was born in Tennessee so it would make sense if she liked all the seasons. She certainly had plenty of snow days in Tennessee and visiting family in Ohio.

They say dogs look like their owners but in this case, Piper acted like her owner. Give us all the hot days, you can keep your winters. There were times I held her in my arms, belly up, with the sun warming her whole body and she’d tilt her head back, close her eyes and I think she was as happy as she could be.

I tried to do that for her, give her a happy life. I wasn’t always successful but she knew I loved her with my whole heart. And now that she’s gone, all I can cling to is warm (or hot since we both prefer that temperature) memories of her in my heart. Piper, always my first dog.

-Out of the Wilderness

Piper Part 2 – You Make Me Wanna Roll My Windows Down and Cruise

Hi there! Welcome to Out of the Wilderness. I’m posting 15 tributes to my best beagle who passed away last week. She was lovable. She was sneaky. She was Piper.

Piper 🙂

At 15 years old, she had lived her best life whether it was getting a secret extra treat or wandering off the moment I turned my head for a millisecond. “Where’d Piper go?” is a question I asked a lot, usually followed up with, “Oh, good Lord, she’s gone again!” and a search party spreading out to track her down. She travelled by foot (paw?) a lot, going here, going there, going everywhere.

We travelled by car a lot, too, and that’s where things could get a little dicey. I’m talking about motion sickness! Going from Tennessee to Florida and back to Tennessee again, she and I had to figure out how to make it work and there were a few stories along the way. The blanket I had to toss into a dumpster somewhere in Alabama. Piper being so small she could crawl under the driver seat, or her having an upset stomach, tossing her breakfast, but eating it again before I could pull off the interstate. Eventually, though, we got into a good routine. Meaning… I mostly just fed her really early or not anytime close to when we were about to go on a long drive. But she had her ways of coping with it, too. If you ever rode with us, you probably noticed that she sat facing backwards. She literally faced the back seat. She was a smart little thing! One thing I learned is that fresh wind always seemed to help her not feel uneasy on the car rides so as often as I could, I’d roll the windows down and cruise. She loved to take in all the new scents.

I’m going to miss those whiskers and those big ears flopping in the wind. Gosh, I never would have thought “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line would make me nostalgic but here I am listening to a song about a Chevy with a lift kit and thinking about the great times I had with my car-sick beagle. My Chevy did look a lot better with her up in it. Funny how the most random song can still connect back to Piper.

-Out of the Wilderness

Piper Part 1 – The Beginning of An Era

I saw a picture of a bin of beagles and my schedule for the following day was immediately changed. I’d go visit Happy Tales Humane Society in Franklin, Tennessee and find the one puppy that already had all of my attention even just from that one picture. Somehow I knew that that one, not having met her or seen her in person yet, was meant to be my companion. The next morning I drove as fast as I could and I found her and she sat on my lap for 3 hours right there in one of the rooms of the office. I kept asking myself, should I do this? Is it time to be a dog dad? I already knew the answer, though.

Our journey together began that day. Before showing her her new home, we stopped by PetSmart for supplies and a bed, pictured below.

I had a little bit of an idea that Piper would change my life but I didn’t know exactly what the next 15 years would bring. From naps together to me chasing her through the woods, traveling around the southeast as far south as Key West and as far west as Texas, a million cuddles, and countless meetings by the space heater, we were pretty much inseparable and I have been so blessed and lucky and thankful to be her dog dad. Even when she magically escaped and went on adventures led only by her nose, we’d come back together and be as happy as two peas in a pod.

My time with Piper drew to a close last week. She was 15 so as my way of loving her even when she’s gone, I’ll be writing 15 Piper-related posts to represent the amazing years we had together. Please check in daily for more of my memories and experiences with the loyal and royal Piper Wilder.

-Out of the Wilderness