Karen Wils photo The pups at five weeks old, cute little mischief makers.

ESCANABA — Something was more watched than the television or the computer screen this winter at our house.

Cell phones were silenced with their cameras aimed at a comfy little nook in our basement.

Around a woodstove in a simple plain basement area, family and friends gathered. The living room couch and recliner were bare while some sat on stools or on the floor to watch the puppies.

While the temperature dipped to minus 15 degrees outside, all was warm and welcoming to a new litter of beagle puppies in our basement.

New life is always an amazing thing.

This much desired batch of beagles were hoped to transpire in the spring or summertime, but mother nature had other plans. So, a mid-winter delivery of pups it was.

When most old, married couples are sitting in front of the evening news, with dessert from supper and a cup of coffee, David and I were in the basement being midwives.

A few snowflakes squirreled around the streetlight outside, and the house was strangely quiet until that first little faint whimper was heard in the whelping box.

Frost was born, flowed by Windchill… Tundra… Taiga… and finally… Whiteout. Our winter litter had arrived healthy and hungry.

Even if you have witnessed it dozens of times before, watching a mother dog carefully coax life into her newborns and begin to nurture them and care for them, is thrilling.

A couple of generations ago, back on the old homestead, new life was a pretty common thing especially at this time of the year. There might be a calves or lambs in the barn. The calico cat had a new batch of kittens under the kitchen stairs. In the chicken coop the hens were often incubating eggs by now and bunnies, both wild and tame, were nestled down in nests of dry grass.

The miracle of new life was a very visible thing back a few years ago in the rural Upper Peninsula just ask us from families of six to ten siblings.

Fast forward to 2025. The average American family size is 3.15. The horse has been replaced by the pick-up truck. Food comes from the store or restaurant and the barn cat and working dogs are replaced by rescued pets. Nobody really sees baby animals much anymore.

So needless to say, many young friends enjoyed watching a beagle mother dog nurse her pups in our basement. Watching the little whippersnappers learn to romp, run and play was more entertaining than Facebook.

Raising a litter of pups is a privilege that does not come around very often. And it is something that must be planned, vet approved and pups in demand.

In a blink of an eye the helpless, blind, tiny new-born pups grow into bouncing, bright-eyed beagles that are taking over my laundry room.

Now they are on their way to new homes and new hunting adventures. Thanks, pups, for brightening up some long, cold winter days.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.