Yondu...dely Dude

A small dog with some real B.D.E.

**We're talking Big Dog Energy, by the way**

Imagine my surprise when Dog Dad decided he wanted a puppy the day after telling me that getting another dog would be too much, insane, ridiculous, and a just plain bad idea. I was even more surprised to learn that said puppy was a Pitbull and Beagle mix, in my head, those two things just don't go together.

My control freak nature instantly kicked in by telling him to do research on Beagles since they have a reputation for being kind of loud, to figure out what kind of crate and collar and leash he wanted, to gently urging him to swing by a pet store to get everything he'd need so we didn't have to stop after we got the puppy, to choosing which car we were taking to go pick him up, and (if you ask Dog Dad) to even picking out the name of the puppy that isn't mine. I say I just provided some suggestions, he swears I picked them all and made fun of his name choices. I guess this goes to show how fickle memory can be.

Yondu was the product of an accidental breeding between a male Pitbull and a female Beagle. The girl selling them was young, I'd guess late teens or early twenties, and she did a great job of answering all of our questions and sent him home with a toy and some of his current food. He'd had no shots or vet care yet. We drove to Miami not super sure where we were heading or what we were going to stumble into. Dog Dad was pure excitement, I wasn't quite as sure how I felt about this particular adventure.

We pulled up to a house in a less than fabulous neighborhood, texted that we were outside, and the rest was history. The young lady put Yondu in my arms and talked to me a ton about him and the other puppies, including an anxiety-inducing story about how one of the puppies was probably coming back to her for being too noisy in their new home. We learned that Yondu was really about 7 weeks, not 8 like I had expected, and after about 15 minutes of asking questions and talking, we loaded up to drive the 2 hours home.

He snuggled into Dog Dad's arms, then neck, then lap and loved being under the blanket we'd brought with us that was full of Rudy's scent and the general smell of the house (hands down one of the best ideas we had). He was pretty quiet and just a little cutie. When we got home, I didn't expect him to be as full of energy as he was. Zooming around the yard, jumping into my arms when I was on the ground with him, checking out toys, and then ultimately knocking out on the couch. He was pretty interested in Rudy from what I remember, but Rudy was not as thrilled to see yet another puppy in less than a year. And so everyone settled into their new normal life of Dog Dad + 2.

Yondu is the smallest of the pack, and always will be. I'd never realized how small Beagles were, and that part of his genetics seems to have taken over. Any time we take Yondu out we get comments about how adorable he is and there are a lot of people who assume he's just a really young Pitbull puppy. Once we say he's part Beagle, everyone can see it, particularly in the ears and the white tip of his tail.

This little dog has all the big dog energy you could imagine. He has no issues standing up for himself or playing rough with the larger dogs. My favorite move of his is when he grabs Grimm's scruff and rides him like a horse. It's insane, and perfectly captures how fearless Yondu really is. He loves to play, make these wild gremlin-like noises, rip up toys, and chew. We estimate that Yondu was born in early August since he came home towards the end of October, so that puts him right around six months old at this point.

Coming up next for Yondu and me:

• Working on leash walking

• Continuing basic commands and obedience

• Learning to use his powerful nose for good instead of evil

Thanks for learning about Yondu, and if you want to see more of him, check us out on Instagram at HerRunningTails, and follow our hashtag #herrunningtails

Thanks for reading this tail, and hopefully many more!

Danielle & Yondu