There's no need to fear

Finally I have something to write about!!!

I went to see Underdog this weekend. I know. I know. I'm too old. But I had two kids with me, so it's not creepy or anything.
Anyway, good movie. Well, it was not the movie that was great. It was the fact that it was about two hours worth of screentime for a talking beagle.

I love beagles. Always have. When I was in first grade, I got my first dog — a beagle named Jake. Jake was my best friend for the better part of my life so far. I could always count on Jake, no matter what life threw at me.

Then, one day my Junior year at UNC (I remember it like it was yesterday — Nov. 3, 2001), I tried to call my dad for my weekly "I need money" plea, but I couldn't get a hold of him all day. My aunt and another worker at the shop were acting weird each time I called, too. Finally, around 6 p.m., my dad called me back to deliver the bad news. Jake had gotten run over and died in our driveway by a pottery shopper. He was crying as he told me. Soon I was crying, too.

This was a dog that had survived hurricanes, snowstorms, endless shoppers, and almost everything else for 16 years. He even ran away one time for six months, and I thought I had lost him forever until, when driving home late one night I spotted him walking towards home on the side of the road about 5 miles from our house. I figured he could survive anything after that, but he couldn't.

A few months later I got Roscoe, another beagle. He was totally different from Jake. Jake was mild manored and loved to be outside. Roscoe, mostly because he grew up in my apartment in Chapel Hill, was fiesty and loved to be inside.

He was probably the prettiest beagle I've ever seen. One nght while working at at the Sports desk at the Herald, though, I received largely the same call I had gotten three years earlier, with dad telling me Roscoe had been cut down by a tractor-trailer while crossing the road to visit with pottery shoppers at my house.

Like most of life, owning a dog is great, but it can break your heart. I think if I had a farm with about 30 beagles and about 30 cars, my life would be set. This is my goal. To have enough room that I can have as many beagles as I want and not have to receive that call again.

Anyway, Underdog was good. Not a great plot — your standard superhero movie, except with a dog. And Jim Belushi is an awful actor. Luckily he is not in it a lot. But it has some funny parts. It is what it is.

And it is great for a beagle lover.