Golden Puppy Love

Where could we possible start when talking about Bentley! Disposition? Behavior? Endless loving? We could sum it up in a short video – our 11 month old daughter crawling over to him issuing the war cry of “aaaaaah….aaaah….aaaah” and Bentley dutifully laying on his side – patiently awaiting for her to pull herself up onto him with tiny fistful’s of hair getting ripped out but with Bentley not even flinching during it. Her laying on him with arms outstretched over his body and shoulders, repeatedly placing her cheek against him, picking her head up to look at us, at him, then resting her head cheek down on him again – him still not flinching. Perhaps our 3 year old son – suddenly eyeballing Bentley resting peacefully from across the room and bee line’s over to him and straddles him like a horse. Not to pretend he’s riding him – simply because he figured he’d continue on whatever he was doing only from a seated position on Bentley’s shoulders….and Bentley again doesn’t move. Or maybe it’s out 4 year old daughter requiring Bentley to lie on her carpet beside her bed at night or checking to make sure he’s taken up his post in the hallway just outside her door as the bedtime books are ritualistically read. Or we could send a video of his groaning in happiness when we return home, wagging his tail and sneaking in a cold nose to your hand. Pictures – probably more than some have of their own children – are plentiful. Bentley squeezed into a tight black tank-top as a ‘north jersey dog’ (insert paw-pumping here), wearing sunglasses or a birthday hat, packed into a green Eagles dog-football jersey – and many more costumes to come as our children get older and more creative with their patient and tolerant “big brother”. Perhaps an audio of his terrifying, instinctive, protective mode growl-bark - he’s already willingly put himself in between our family and what he perceives as a threat – and that sound is enough to make any unsuspecting delivery person use our lawn in the same manner that Bentley does every day – if you know what I mean. Yet – once he establishes the trust – he’ll approach you with a tail wag so vicious the lower 60% of his torso joins into the dance. We’re not sure that we could adequately sum up what Bentley means to us – he’s the complete package and it’s not only hard but saddening to even start to imagine a life without him….. waiting for us to get up every morning and seeing us off to bed every night. We unconditionally love Bentley – just as he unconditionally loves us. Thank you, Dee, for introducing Bentley into our lives, our memories and our hearts.

- John, Bianca & Family