Our Newest Addition – Bentley

In 48 hours we drove a total of 27 of them and over 1700 miles. It was a long weekend!! But this face makes it all worth it. My buddy’s dog had puppies so it was off we went! Our 3 year old LOVES dogs and I can’t emphasize love enough. Every dog she sees she has to pet and say hi to. She has been talking about us getting our puppy for a long time but I don’t think she thought it was real. When she saw him she was pretty excited and this morning she had to come out and give him a hug! It was so cute.

For me, Bentley means a lot too. He’s the great grandson of the dog my buddy had when we were in college and she was an amazing hunter and all around amazing dog. He will give me the freedom I need to go hunting again. It’s hard enough to hunt without a dog with 2 legs and almost impossible with 1. He can chase down the ducks and pheasants for me.

Along with hunting, I plan on training him to be a therapy dog as well. I want to take him into the hospitals here and visit the children’s areas and the cancer wards. When I was in the hospital, seeing the dog that came in was great. It raises your spirits and makes you forget about things for a bit. I was missing snuggles with my cats and that puppy helped. (P.S. the cats are not thrilled right now!!!) To be a therapy dog, they have to have specific training and must be a year old. Considering what I expect out of him for being my hunting buddy, getting certified should be a cake walk!

Animals can do so much for you. I’m lucky that I grew up with cats and got my wife to love them too. Now, I get to experience being a dog owner and the love that brings. Adelynn will get to learn even more about being responsible and taking care of animals (I hope at least!). Pretty soon, we’re going to have 2 adults, 1 toddler, 2 cats, and what looks like he’ll be about an 80 pound lab… yes we’re crazy! Oh, we’re also talking about starting the process to adopt a baby (thanks chemo…) so we’re praying that in the future we get to add another human to this zoo we have at our house!