The Sweetness

Kelly - over at Kelly's Korner - is hosting her weekly 'Show Us Your Life' and today is all about pets. So, I decided I would take the opportunity to introduce those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting him in person to our four-legged son...The Sweetness.

No, his name is not technically 'The Sweetness.' Technically his name is Bentley. But somewhere along the way Hubby started calling him Sweet Sweet which then evolved in to The Sweetness. He's also been known to answer to Bent Bent, SwwwSwww (before BBug could say Sweet Sweet) and DaDa (before BBug could say SwwwSwww)!

The Sweetness joined our family 4 1/2 years ago when it was still just Hubby and I. When Hubby and I first met we both had dogs of our own, I had Teensy a min pin and he had Cecil a german shorthair. During the course of our dating and early marriage we lost both of those dogs and so in May of 2005 we decided to get a new puppy. We wanted another shorthair, but one had just won the Westminster so they were officially out of our price range! Growing up my family had always had mutts/pound puppies, so I talked Hubby in to going that route again.

We went to the county pound and there was a cage full of siblings. The cutest little puppies you've ever seen! Two girls and one little boy. The girls were hyper and noisy - barking non-stop jumping all around. The little boy was as laid back and quiet as you've ever seen. We decided that little boy puppy was meant to join our family! I felt so bad about leaving his sisters though that I tried to talk Hubby in to taking all of them. I was serious, I did not want to leave those poor babies there! We had to wait a few days before we could bring him home - to let him get fixed and whatnot - so Hubby gave in and agreed to take all of them if the sisters were still there when we went to pick him up. Luckily for us, the sisters had been adopted by the time we went back to pick him up. And I say luckily because that cute little puppy eventually grew in to a 90 pound mass of energy! There's no way I could have handled three of them!

The Sweetness started out as an indoor dog, but as he grew and grew and grew and our family grew to include BBug (and as he continued to eat more and more of my shoes!) we decided that he needed more room to roam and made him an outdoor dog. He loves it. He has a room in the back of the garage that is open for him at all times but also allows him free access to the yard. He's pretty content to just hang out there most of the time, but on occaision he'll get a wild hair and try to make a break for it when we open the gate or the garage door. And when he's successful...oh Lordy! That is the fastest dog you've ever seen! Literally, he's out the door, down the driveway and across the road before you even realize he's made it past you!

Other than the occaisional escapes, he is a fantastic dog. He's low maintenance, he's loving with the kids (who adore him!) and he's good for scaring off folks who don't know him! It's hard to believe sometimes that he's been with us for so long, but we're looking forward to a lot more years with him!