The Beagle Scholar Had One Sentence Left to Write

Candlelight warms one side of the Beagle's face while the rest of the room sinks into deep brown shadow. He wears a black scholar's robe over a crisp white collar, and one pale paw holds a long feather quill as if a sentence has just slipped away from him. His soft hazel eyes look straight out of the canvas, long brown ears hanging like velvet curtains, and the painted surface is lightly cracked the way very old portraits are.

Beagles make a fitting choice for a thinker, because they were bred to follow scent trails for hours and they have a famously curious nose. That curiosity is a gift, but it also means a Beagle will happily follow a smell right out of an open gate. Secure fencing and a sturdy leash are the basics, and a few minutes of sniff games indoors, such as hiding treats in a rolled towel, give that busy nose a job. These friendly hounds also tend to be social and do best with company and regular exercise. If you are thinking about one, talk to your vet about portion sizes, since many Beagles are experts at begging.

For now this learned fellow seems to be weighing his next line very carefully. Whatever he writes, it probably involves dinner. Perhaps it will be a long epic about the great sausage that escaped, written one careful line at a time, with plenty of pauses to sniff the ink.