www.roanoke.com

At the risk of sending you elsewhere for your daily fix of dog stories and losing you forever, I wanted to share two blogs that I discovered recently and enjoy immensely.

Fred and Hank Mark Americais the tale of two beagles and their pet parents, Jim and Joan Brady, as they cross the country in an Acura. (That's Fred on the left. If you deduced that Hank is on the right, you are correct.)

Jim Brady, former online editor of washingtonpost.com, narrates the journey and Joan Brady photographs each day's adventures. Think of it as a modern-day version of John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley," but with two beagles instead of one standard poodle.

If you belong to Facebook you can get a daily update from the Fred and Hank group delivered to your inbox.  This blog has a lot of appeal to me, including cross-country travel without a rigid schedule, breathtaking photography, and of course, adorable dogs. Brady's writing is very funny and I really like the daily music, meal and hotel reports.

It's like getting a daily postcard from friends. Friends with cute hounds.

The other blog actually resides inside another blog. Daily Chuck is part of dooce.com, a blog maintained by Heather Armstrong, a mom in Utah. While dooce.com contains Armstrong's musings and anecdotes about life and parenting (which are very, very funny) Daily Chuck is a photo journal of Chuck and Coco, Armstrong's two pooches.

(This is Chuck, helping with a recent home improvment project.)

The photos are big and gorgeous and the captions are hilarious. There is adult language, so if you are sensitive to that sort of thing (I am not) then you may not enjoy it.

Read more about Armstrong's new book on The Roanoke Times' book page on Mother's Day, May 10.

I hope you enjoy Fred and Hank and Chuck and Coco as much as I do.