Remembering loved ones passed and welcoming new ones

It's been a long time since I've logged on and shared what's been going on.  I have been busy with my new job at the State and was completely focused there.  At the time, there was nothing much new to report. 

Then came the holidays.  Then we found out Banjo had lymphoma.  His health deteriorated far too quickly and we had to let him go what felt like way too soon.  It was devastating.  I didn't want to talk about, but I desperately did at the same time.  Chris and I supported one another and got through it as best we could. 

Within a few weeks, I started looking at rescues for a new-to-us beagle.  In fact, we were looking for a pair of beagles.  I thought we found a pair Kansas, but the rescue group there was very disorganized and weren't truthful about the dogs (they claimed they were beagles, but they were more like a quarter beagle, and probably mostly German Shepherds). 

Then, on a whim, I decided to foster two incoming beagle mixes from Midwest Animal Rescue (MARS).  I say "I" because it was mostly me hating the quiet of the house and greatly missing having a furry friend around.  I quickly found out taking in two new dogs that hadn't met one another before was extremely stressful.  For the most part, they were well-behaved, but wrestled constantly and needed to always be supervised.  I'm leaving out some of the best stories (mishaps) for now.  Luckily, one of the two moved on to a different foster.  And then there was one.

Turns out I completely failed at being a foster.  I slowly fell in love with him, but didn't allow myself to realize it until I was thinking about what I would do if someone wanted to adopt him.  That's when I realized I had gotten too attached.  Dammit.

Welcome Conner! 

He is a snuggle-bug and super sweet.  He doesn't quite have the beagle howl or the super soft beagle ears that Banjo had, but he also doesn't have the aggression issues.  He loves learning tricks (because he gets treats) and he loves me more than Chris :)  We're planning to foster another beagle closer to summer, when my job quiets down.  We would ultimately like to have two, only this time, we'll have Conner settled in before bringing another one in.  Way better plan!