I walked out of my office late this afternoon and saw this scene in the living room ... blind Briggs parked in front of the TV, looking as if he were using his cone to get better satellite reception with CNN. And there are the other two Beagles, deaf Stuart on the chair and blind Widget on the cot. Not one of them was actually paying any attention to Wolf Blitzer's program. They may be hounds but they are definitely not, um, newshounds.
Briggs continues to recover from his eye surgery, and his eyes still look pretty icky at this point. That cone has to stay on for quite a while.
We were surprised to find another side of Briggs last week, after blind Mitch the Husky arrived. Mitch hasn't been neutered yet (off to the vet tomorrow!), and Briggs was only recently neutered when he came a few weeks ago, so we're having a clash of the testosterones ... but it's all coming from Briggs, who obviously still has some of that stuff in his system!
The first time Briggs realized Mitch was out in the yard, he got his hackles up, started barking, and went wobbling over to let Mitch know that he, Briggs, was the new sheriff in town. Briggs got so wound up over Mitch that his eyes started bulging ... and I mean bulging so much we thought they were going to pop right out of his head! We said to him, "Careful, dude, we paid for those eyes!"
Now, bear in mind Mitch towers over this little blind Beagle, but Briggs was going to let him know just who was running the show around here. This was the strangest thing, because we had never seen Briggs like this before with any of our dogs. Now suddenly he was Mr. Tough Guy, laying down the law to the new Husky. Briggs will wobble forth to go nose-to-nose with Mitch, who looks down at this unsteady yet oddly assertive Beagle with the cone on his head and wonders how he should respond.
Mitch is too sweet to get worked up over something like this, so he finally gives Briggs a dismissive look that says "What on earth are you?" and turns away. Of course, Briggs interprets this as a "win."
A little testosterone goes a long way.
I think what Briggs was really trying to do was get reception on Fox News! :)
Posted by: Shirley & James, Portland, OR | March 27, 2008 at 10:14 PM
I think Wolf Blitzer needs to see this. Whether he has total or any beagle attention, it is still an honor indeed to be in the good company of the RDR gang!:) We hope Briggs recovers soon, both from his eyes, and umm, testosterone.
Posted by: Margaret | March 27, 2008 at 11:24 AM
If ever something deserves a "Reality TV Show", it's the Ranch. I can see in my mind's eye Briggs facing down Mitch. LOL!
Clay
Posted by: Clay | March 27, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Looks like Briggs would rather be a WWE correspondent...
Posted by: Lalla and Sasha | March 27, 2008 at 08:35 AM
You have to catch beagles when they are interested in something. There was nothing on the TV for them when you took the picture. Take one when CNN is talking about pork bellies or cattle futures and you'll have 3 pudgy little Beagles who are all ears. FOOD, now that's news!
Posted by: Bob | March 27, 2008 at 07:28 AM
Let me be the first (maybe) to vote for a...cone to nose Briggs V Mitch face off picture? Although Briggs has Mitch at an unfare advantage sporting his high tech bark-volume increasing device.
Posted by: Andrew, NZ | March 27, 2008 at 04:50 AM
Hahaha... You leave CNN for your dogs? That's um... quite unique! :D
I wish Briggs speedy recovery of his eyes and Mitch good luck tomorrow.
Posted by: yoonamaniac | March 27, 2008 at 01:05 AM