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CommunityDogs have a ball at Beagle Bash
Adopters, volunteers reunite
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by ERICA MITRANO
Matthew Estes, 6, of Columbia holds a beagle at the Third Annual Beagle Bash at Countryside Kennels in Owings.
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On Sept. 14, Beagle Rescue of Southern Maryland held its Third Annual Beagle Bash at Countryside Kennels. Volunteers manned booths selling many kinds of dog treats and an array of beagle-themed trinkets, while the dogs — and some of their humans — wandered around a fenced enclosure, socialized and took dips in a swimming pool.
While a few of the beagles were up for adoption, the bash was mainly a reunion for the group’s adopters and volunteers, according to Sherrie Manuel, treasurer.
‘‘It’s a nice event for adopters to come back to see their fosters,” Manuel said.
Three adoptable dogs lolled in the shade of a tent, occasionally squabbling with each other under the watchful eyes of their foster ‘‘mothers,” women who have taken them in until they are placed with families.
One of the dogs was Guinness, who has a tragic story, but one likely to end better than it began. As far as his veterinarian could tell, Guinness had been thrown from a moving car not long before he was found, and it was the vet who referred him to Beagle Rescue, Manuel said. His pelvis was fractured and his tail had to be amputated, but ‘‘he’s healing up quite nicely,” she said.
Not all of the dogs they help have been so badly mistreated, but being abandoned is bad enough.
‘‘We get some that have been run over, and a lot of them are abandoned in shelters if they don’t hunt well or don’t hunt what they’re bred to,” Manuel said. ‘‘They’re bred to hunt rabbits” and their owners sometimes abandon them if they chase after other game. Others are left at shelters when they are too old to be hunting dogs.
But retired working dogs still make good pets, she said: ‘‘They’re just nice little dogs. They’re outdoor hunting dogs, but they adapt very well to the couch when you bring them in.”
Judy Easterly has been involved with Beagle Rescue for five years, since adopting her own dog from the group, she said. She’s now the foster mother for another dog, Emma Rose, until she is adopted.
‘‘When they got her, they called her ‘2 cents,’ because that’s what she thought she was worth. But she’s worth $1 million to me,” Easterly said.
Mary Ann Croft of Alabama timed a trip to Delaware so that she could attend the bash on the way home. She has five beagles, some of which she had been fostering for Beagle Rescue, but decided to take with her when she moved.
She’s devoted to beagles ‘‘because they’re stubborn and independent like I am, and lovable and adorable,” she said.
