Ben

My Aunt Deb's longtime dog passed away earlier last month. As my aunt took him to nearly every family occasion that didn't involve a restaurant or a church, we saw a lot of Ben. My Auntie Deb and Uncle Steve visited my grandmother every week. And since my Mom lives next door to her mother, that meant we saw quite a bit of Ben too. Which meant someone else saw quite a bit of Ben...



This was the only halfway decent shot of Ben and Smokey I was ever able to get. The crazed Smokey was a tad hostile to Ben's calm presence. This meant that Smokey would often try to establish himself as the alpha--loudly. This also meant that Ben smacked down Smokey. Often.

I have lived long enough to see Deb go through two dogs, Ben, and before that, Bear (I'll have to get some photos of him scanned). The amount of time Deb has gone without a dog in the last 30 years probably couldn't haven't been measured in months until now. She's going though a tougher process than most people go through to adopt a child. The end result will be a red-headed retriever (like Ben), only a puppy.

I'm going to be very curious to see how Smokey reacts when he runs into what is basically a Ben that he can look into the eye. Mom doesn't think it will be pretty, and she's usually right.