It Was Because of Snoopy.

Tonight, Jim and I were lucky enough to catch the annual network broadcast of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” in its entirety. (Often we tune in near the end or miss it altogether because we had no idea it’d be on.) The Peanuts cartoons–the ORIGINALS, mind you, not the newer, inferior television specials–have always been among our favorites because they remind us of our childhood. I’m sure we’re not alone in that sentiment.

Snoopy was always my favorite character. He was smart, sneaky, and even though his actions made it seem otherwise, he really cared about others deep down at his core.

It was because of Snoopy that I always wanted a beagle. I grew up with Dachshunds in the house and loved them dearly, but it was my dream to grow up and bring a floppy-eared beagle into my home. And I did, twice.

Bijoux was our first beagle. She was a great dog. Bijoux was the anti-beagle in many ways. She mainly barked when she saw someone approaching the house. She was not very high energy. She caused most of her trouble as a puppy and then only sporadically created chaos in her adult years. She was very loving and snuggly.

And then there was Roxie. We brought her home a year after Bijoux died, and quickly discovered she was the anti-Bijoux.

Roxie is ALL beagle. She would make Snoopy proud. She is smart, sneaky, and I’m pretty sure she cares about others deep down at her core…but sometimes I wonder. She is noisy a lot of the time, only snuggles and loves on her own terms, and her energy, as you know if you’ve been following me for a while, is through the roof. At nearly twelve years old, she still acts like a puppy a lot of the time.

I just looked up Snoopy’s character description on the Peanuts Wikia and had a good laugh because Roxie and Snoopy would’ve made a great team. Well, you know, they would’ve made a great team if Snoopy was a real dog instead of a cartoon, and if I was actually looking for a teammate for my dog.

I added commentary for Roxie in parentheses:

“Snoopy loves root beer (yep) and pizza (yep), hates coconut candy, gets claustrophobia in tall weeds (yep), and is deathly afraid of icicles dangling over his doghouse. One of his hobbies is reading Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace at the rate of “a word a day” (Roxie cannot read). Snoopy also has the uncanny ability to play fetch with soap bubbles (tried it), and can hear someone eating marshmallows or cookies at a distance (YAS; also can sense a cutting board being pulled out of the cabinet from two rooms away), or even peeling a banana (yep). He claims to hear chocolate chip cookies calling him (totally). Snoopy is also capable of disappearing (yes, though not LITERALLY disappearing, still so annoying), like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, as shown in a series of strips (“Grins are easy. Noses are hard. Ears are almost impossible.”). Two things Snoopy dislikes are listening to balloons being squeezed and cats (HATES balloons; has indifference regarding cats as long as she’s not in the room with them).”

It occurred to me that the things I always loved about Snoopy, the things that caused me to want a beagle in the first place, are many of the characteristics that Roxie possesses. Many are things I complain about. (Perhaps I need to remind myself of how endearing those traits are in a cartoon dog.) Overall, Roxie is just as entertaining as Snoopy–in her own way, of course. I do love her dearly, and I think she loves me…deep down at her core. Maybe.