My Benny

This is Benny.

Benny is very special to me. He doesn't have "papers." He isn't a registered purebred with a lineage that goes back generations. He has no fancy titles after his name. He is a mixed breed dog. And that makes absolutely no difference to me.

Benny is half golden retriever and half corgi. He has the body type and the short legs of a corgi, and the coat, ears, tail and temperament of a golden retriever. He’s extremely mellow, and he gets along with everybody, humans and canines alike.

Benny was about 5-1/2 years old when I adopted him. I don't know anything about his early life, but I do know that he was called Bailey and that he ended up in an animal shelter in Roswell, NM. I already had a dog named Bailey, so I needed to change his name. Benny seemed to fit him, and it was close enough to Bailey that I thought it would be an easy adjustment for him.

I found Benny on a website that lists dogs available for adoption. When I first inquired about him, I was told that someone else wanted him, and that person had already completed a home visit. So I asked to be notified if that adoption didn't work out. A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call asking if I was still interested. I was, so I got the home visit completed and Benny came to my house for a 2-week trial to see if he was a good fit for my family, which included two papillon sisters.

It didn't take long to realize that Benny was home. He and my other dogs got along fine, so I called the volunteer who had been fostering him and said "Benny is home. I want him." We finished the paperwork and I wrote a check for his adoption fee. Benny has been home for almost 6 years.

The pandemic lockdown, when I was unable to travel or even go grocery shopping, meant that Benny and I spent every moment of the day together. We have always been very close, and that experience made us even closer. After the papillon sisters died a year apart, he was an only dog for a while. He is a joy to walk, so we had many long, leisurely walks together.

He has been losing his hearing for the past several months. He isn’t totally deaf, but it takes a lot to get his attention, especially when he’s sleeping, which is something he does more of all the time. He hesitates before stepping over the threshold into our house due to intermittent back problems. He also has become an extremely picky eater. As a result, he has lost some weight that he cannot afford to lose. I am always trying to come up with things to add to his food to tempt him to eat. Perhaps the most worrying thing about him is his constant panting. I have taken him to see his veterinarian three times. She has done bloodwork and taken x-rays of his heart and his spine, and everything is normal. So the reason for his panting remains a mystery.

Benny is a very calm, low-key dog. Not much gets him excited except for the ringing of the doorbell. And he likes to go into the back yard and bark at nothing in particular. I live on half an acre, so this isn't a problem except when he barks at 4:30 in the morning.

Despite his short legs and his age, Benny sometimes still enjoys a romp with my other, much younger dog in our back yard. Play sessions don't last very long, but I love seeing the old boy having fun. It always makes me smile to see those short little legs running across the yard toward me.

So this is my Benny. I hope we have many more years together. If you're looking to add a dog to your family, please don't overlook the older dogs. They need love, too.