Baylee is in Doggy Heaven.

Baylee

Age 13, January 21, 1999 - April 25, 2012

Baylee you were the best Beagle dog ever. It's not the same without you.

Nickname: Miss Beasley, Beag

Our Dear Beagle Baylee passed away on Wednesday, April 25th 2012. We had her since she was a puppy of just 3 months. She was the coolest dog ever.
She joined her beloved brother Oreo today. Also reuniting with her cat family Maya and Magick and the human friends she made along the way. They will be there to greet her I am sure.

Age: 13 years, 3 months, and 4 days

Bio by Jessica A.
{With thanks to Journey for her assistance)

Back in the 1990's there was a commercial for dog food where an adorable Beagle named Dusty runs to her owner's waiting arms. I thought the dog was adorable so it began... my love for the Beagle breed. I started reading about the breed and the more I read the more I wanted one. At the time I was not aware there were Beagle rescues. After a couple years I started to save money for this Beagle I wanted. My Mom searched for a Beagle breeder, we found one nearby. He just happened to have a pregnant Beagle. When she called she was about ready to give birth. He told us the info needed and we were so excited. He told us since we were the first to put a deposit down, we would have pick of the litter. One day we went to see the breeder to pay him the deposit and in a barn were the Beagle puppies. One on top of the other, it was a literal Beagle mountain. The mother Beagle, Darla was her name, was the typical friendly Beagle. She greeted us sweetly. We left since the puppies were too young to even be touched by humans.

We returned weeks later with the remainder of the money and we finally got to pick our Beagle puppy. She had the exact coloring I wanted in a Beagle. She was beautiful. The breeder put a collar on her that claimed her as our puppy. It was still too early to take her home so we left. It was stormy that day and since the puppies were in an enclosure outside, I was worried sick they would get wet and get sick.

I couldn't wait to go pick her up - my dream was coming true. I would have the Beagle I always wanted.
By law we had to wait for the puppies to be a certain age and to have their clean bill of health. That same day we went to bring her home. It was such a happy day. I could not believe how lucky I was to have my Beagle puppy. I loved that puppy from the minute we chose her. On the way home I held her close and she was so pretty. We named her Baylee. She turned out to be a very feisty puppy, a real spitfire but such a cutie. It is unbelievably hard to think of her as that precious puppy.
Baylee was a real handful as a puppy. We tried crate training her and she would have none of it. We tried it a couple times and then the crate went in the shed forever, never to be used again. Baylee had a predilection for highlighters and pens. That was her thing. Some dogs have shoes, some have paper and Baylee had her pens and highlighters.

Like any Beagle, she loved to eat. She was a greedy little Beagle, but to me she was the best little Beagle ever. We had been warned Beagles barked/bayed and that they dug to get out. Baylee never did that. She was happy where she was, but if by some chance she got to get out, trying to catch her was a real feat. Whenever our other dog got loose with her, she would bay to him to wherever she was. Thankfully she only got loose 4-5 times in 13 years.

Baylee was the perfect Beagle. All I ever wanted and more. I would love to bring home another Beagle one day, but I can't. Baylee is the only Beagle for me. I will have other dogs, but never a Beagle. She was the best Beagle, a real joy to me and I do not want to have another one. When Baylee was growing up, she was best friends with our other dog, Oreo. They were inseparable. Oreo helped me raise Baylee. He would tell her off in canine language if she was doing something wrong. They loved each other from the minute they met. This was a real achievement since Oreo hated other dogs, including his own sister, Cayce. Baylee was Oreo's little partner in crime. She was known to get on a table, steal a sandwich and have it gobbled up in 2 seconds flat.

She was a real character. I have so many fun memories of Baylee and Oreo. She will be missed for the rest of our lives. Baylee was a cool dog. She had no problem with other dogs or cats, having grown with felines. She especially loved people though. She enjoyed people visiting and loved to be next to them or on their lap if they let her (they usually did).

Baylee especially liked children. One day I went to check what she was doing outside (she usually came in right away, after doing her business) and there she was... walking up and down our fenceline and the children next door petting her through the fence. Whenever our neighbor's daughter came to visit, they loved to spend time with Baylee and the little girl would give her biscuits. Baylee knew that and never left the child's side. She just loved little children.

Baylee's favorite treat were greenies. She loved greenies and would be super obedient if you told her you had a greenie waiting for her. She loved them her whole life.
In December of 2005, when we had to put Oreo to sleep, she seemed a little off. We could tell she missed Oreo, so in January, a week before her birthday, we adopted a Pitbull puppy - 6 months old from the Animal Control shelter.
It was not love at first sight. Baylee did not like the exuberance of the new pup, which we named Jack. He would breeze by her and she would snap at him. It was not done in a mean way and it was quite comical. Baylee and Jack were soon pals and Baylee was the queen bee, queen beag.

Jack was no Oreo in her eyes, but she seemed to like the young Pittie. It was not as close a friendship as she had with Oreo.

Baylee never had a pal like Oreo again. It might sound cheesy, but I think Oreo was the love of her life. She was a little mastermind. If Oreo had something she wanted, she would bark at something and when he went to see what the ruckus was about, she would grab what he had. She did that all the time, but Oreo would fall for it. Both my Mom and I think Oreo knew what she was doing, but let her do it. Same with food. Every day he would leave some food in his bowl and when Baylee came out from her room, she would run to Oreo's bowl and eat what he had left her. It happened every day.

We had to keep Baylee and our other dog, Cayce, separate since Cayce was aggressive. When we left the house, we would put Baylee in the master bedroom. When we got home Oreo would have opened the door and she would be out. He made sure Cayce did not hurt Baylee. Since this was a recurring problem we started putting something in front of the door, so he could not open it and let Baylee out. It would always happen, so things got crazy. It ended up being a chore every time we left. We would put a board in front of the door knob, a book case to keep it in place, then other furniture. We called it putting the fort up. It was ridiculous, but still Oreo managed to open the door. We would find him stuck in the bedroom with Baylee, both unable to come out. I wish we had put up a camera to film what Oreo did to get through the fort. I am not talking a chair and a board we had everything blocking the door to Baylee. Oreo did not care and he tried to get her out. Even when he was getting ill he still did it. Oreo was her one true friend. I always said I would have loved to see that reunion. I can imagine the beautiful reunion of two best friends together again.

Baylee will be missed, but to know she is with her beloved Oreo again and is free of pain and discomfort, makes it bearable.