We got the message about Florence just as we were wrapping up another successful BEAGLE BASH FOR CASH.

Our next plan was to arrange our Ugly Xmas Sweater Beagle Meetup and head home to our families for Christmas!

We were not expecting Florence (although we've been saving up the name for just the right beagle!)

And we're not prepared for Florence either.

Our foster homes are full with long-term care babies.

But to HOWL with all that.

Florence needs us.

Here's what our friends at the shelter have to say about Miss People Pleaser…

Would you like another beagle?

Our girl is an approximately 8 year old beagle that arrived as a stray but was never claimed. As per usual she has been spayed, microchipped, had her DA2PP/Rabies/Bordatella vaccines and dewormer. While she was anaesthetized we also removed 3 ugly skin tags and a sebaceous cyst. She is a little overweight and has an oily/flaky coat that the vet feels is due to a poor diet. She also has some pigmentation in her ears which may indicate chronic (but not severe) skin issues. She will still need a dental procedure with at least 2 extractions. To complicate things a little bit she has a heart murmur. The vets were comfortable altering our normal anaesthetic protocol for a dog with a heart murmur and she did very well under GA for her spay.

Behaviourally speaking, she is CLINGY. All she wants is for someone to love her. She is constantly putting her front feet up on people and seeking attention. If you sit on the floor with her she climbs in your lap and licks you non stop. While this is totally adorable, it can also be a little uncomfortable as she is a whopping 20.5 kg.  (Just ask our rescue partner's son about that when Kelly took him to meet her on Sunday! The kisses were flowing for Florence!) Her behaviour assessment is flawless. There are no issues with handling, other dogs, etc.. but she can be vocal (whiny, sometimes barky if you leave her sight).

If you're interested in possibly fostering Florence, don't hesitate to email us at this address. We feel Florence will need someone home more often than not. She may also benefit from another dog in the house but it does appear that she's more focussed on humans so if there are other dogs in the house, they need to be okay with sharing mom/dad. We do think she could be prone to some separation anxiety but being in a shelter circumstance is stressful on its own and we're hopeful once settled in a loving home environment, she will improve over time. The shelter staff think she'd be indifferent towards cats. They only have semi feral/poorly socialized cats at the shelter right now and feel it would be unfair to subject them to a dog in their space so she's not been formally introduced to any cats while at the shelter. In other encouraging news, Florence appears to be housetrained, keeps her kennel clean overnight. She does, however, have an adorable habit of trying to bury her food for late night snacking and she often tips her bowl in her excitement and knocks things into her water bowl so she's a bit of a messy eater/drinker! But we can forgive the mess when it comes to the beagle's Prime Directive --- FOOD!