Abita came from a local shelter in 1994. She'd just weaned a litter of puppies, and she was the quietest, most mellow beagle I'd ever seen. Her name, after Abita Springs Brewery's Abita Turbo Dog, was a bit ironic...briefly. Then she got over her post-partum lassitude and lived up to the turbo appellation.
Although she'd "turbo" with excitement when she went for a walk, Abita never had much use for toys, with one exception: after a snowstorm the first winter we had her, she repeatedly buried and dug up a stuffed cheeseburger in the back yard. Once the snow melted, she could not have cared less, and she never did it again in subsequent winters.
She's not a puppy anymore, although a surprising number of people we meet out walking still make that mistake. She has put on a few pounds in spite of the Lite Senior food, and she's seeing a cardiologist for a mitral valve prolapse. The cardiologist says she has a good heart, though (I knew that) and that she should have several good years left.
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