#AustintheBeagle, along with his late lamented brother #ClydetheBeagle, and many other beagles, is infamous for his...

#AustintheBeagle, along with his late lamented brother #ClydetheBeagle, and many other beagles, is infamous for his Escape Artistry. But this morning he outdid himself with an attempt to escape from our eighth-floor downtown Portland apartment. Mom was leaving and he sneaked out the door behind her. The workers who have been updating the electricity in our 70-year-old building had left the door to the stairwell open, and he raced through that door and down the stairs. Here's the thing: beagles are not as dumb as they say. The stairs go down to the basement, but he did not follow them all the way. He stopped at the ground floor; when I caught up with him, he was staring at the closed first-floor door. (Curses! Foiled again!) I hauled him back upstairs on the elevator and he immediately went to the closet where we keep his treats. He actually thought he deserved a treat for this escapade! (For other escape attempts by Austin see: https://goo.gl/BjYbPX https://goo.gl/ugA8dm and https://goo.gl/YMI1PJ ).

Originally shared by Barry Cochran

I've posted this picture before, but this is Austin the beagle, wearing a cape. Austin-- age one-- dug himself and his much older brother Clyde out of the yard on Friday. Clyde-- age eleven-- got his old fat butt caught by Animal Control; Austin must've been with him because they are always together. This makes me conclude that Austin was much too fast for the cops. And that dog cops, like human cops, sometimes go for the low-hanging fruit rather than the true menaces to society.

OK, Austin doesn't really look like a menace to society in this picture. But you get my point.