Arlene the Bean likes to Lean
When my other dog, Sam, turned 11, he started sleeping in his own bed and didn’t want to get in the bed with me because he didn’t like to be touched when he was sleeping. He didn’t want to be close – he always liked to position himself in a doorway or corner so he could watch everything that was going on but not get stepped on or be bothered. Not the Bean, as she gets older she is leaning in closer to me and under my feet whenever I do anything. At night, she tangles herself into my hair and climbs up on my pillow like a cat and she seems to not be able to get close enough.
It’s so weird – Sam was such a love puppy and then he became such an indifferent ornery cuss – while Arlene was always so aloof and now wants to be attached at the calf.
I try not to think of the time when the Bean won’t be with me. When I had to put Sam down because of dementia (his not mine), I took to the bed for 24 hours, inconsolable.
To love a dog is so indescribable. I asked Lance the other day why he favors Max over Nellie and he said because Max is more dependent on him. I’ve thought about PETA’s abhorrence of pets and how we have domesticated dogs to the point of handicapping their ability to be self sufficient. I guess we wouldn’t allow packs of dogs to roam the street, which is where they would be if not in our homes, at our hearths, in our beds.
The Bean and I have a mutual dependence though – she depends on me for food and shelter, and I depend greatly on her for dog love – a love so basic but yet so unique to dogs.
She has one blue eye and one brown – a guy told me a long time ago that in the South that is considered a lucky dog.