Beagles came from near and far for a very important gathering at an Arlington dog park. The top agenda item: how to get rid of those pesky things called cats once and for all.

After a meet-and-greet session of howling, digging and sniffing, we got down to business. Discussions started off well. In fact, all 15 of us were close to a consensus — until a squirrel ran through the park. Needless to say, the remainder of our agenda was tabled.

Our talks will resume in a few weeks on a boat cruising along the Potomac River, where there will be no squirrels to distract us. Yes, there’s such thing as a canine cruise. It happens every Thursday all summer. (Why didn’t someone tell me about this sooner?)