CAN you imagine a down-to-earth, regular democratic Beagle like me going through life with a moniker like Riverpark Bright Boy? I should say not. Oscur is good enough. Of course when they start calling me Little Oscur, I rebel. I'm not so little, fourteen and a half inches at the shoulder, and that's nor stretching a bit. Why, there are some guys that never did grow up and are only nine or ten inches tall. I have heard it rumored that they are the small classification of Beagles, but to me they still look like midgets.

I won't even go for a gal that's less than thirteen inches. No, I take it back, I did go for an eleven inch variety once, but she was some class—finished her championship in three shows. Not that I am any laggard! I have done my share of winning too, having won a number of Hound groups, and I am still a young guy, only two and a half years old.

Now they are all raving about my daughter, Ch. Smarty O'Meeker. I call her Smarty Pants when I want to get her good and mad. She isn't a bad kid though, only a year and a half old and already has won five or six Best of Breeds and several Hound groups, the most recent being at the Salinas show. Takes after her old man, except she doesn't have any D. A. (dog appeal).

The author - Oscur

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you about Diana—Ch. Meeker's Diana I mean. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for her because she was my first love but that was before she lost her figure. She just had pups and I'm passing out the bones again. It seems like I spend half my doggy life dishing out bones. Why, I passed Mr. Dionne up months ago, and I think I am setting an all time high.

You know they call us merry little Beagles, and truthfully I don't know why. Maybe it is because we manage to keep our tails wagging and still always look hungry. Would you like to know more about us? Well, our origin seems to be lost in the dim mists of ancient days, and no research has been able to bring the true history to light. Maybe you have read that by the time of Queen Elizabeth nearly every country gentleman in England kept a pack of Hounds of some sort and hunted all kinds of animals with them. Hounds in those days seem to have been divided into two classes, the large and the small. The large sort was called "Buck Hounds" and hunted deer, while the smaller variety was called Beagles from the French "Begle" and were hunted on hare.

There are certain requirements have to live up to—at least that is what the American Kennel Club says and they seem to be the highest authority In the United States, the limit of our height is fifteen inches, and in England sixteen. Hounds above this height can……

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