I didn’t want a dog, but Ken has wanted a Frenchie since forever. He’s obsessed with their ears lol. So when he showed me pictures from the litter of Frenchies a friend of ours had, I couldn’t say no to that face. (Ken’s, not the puppies!)
The next time we were visiting family in California, we had breakfast with her and she brought a couple of the little batpigs. They were ADORABLE. I fell in love with Waffles – he was the runt, and I am always drawn to runts. So soft, so sweet. All grey, exactly what I had been hoping for. And Ken fell in love with Bennie (short for Eggs Benedict lol – these people LOVED breakfast apparently). He gave in and we reserved Waffles.
A few weeks later, they called us and asked if we would consider taking Bennie instead. They just had someone come to see the pups who said they would only take one if they could take Waffles. Knowing how much Ken had been drawn to Bennie, I agreed.
We had a pretty traumatic event happen – a friend went down on a motorcycle ride and had been airlifted to the hospital. The day before we were scheduled to meet our friend halfway between California and Washington to pick Bennie up. We called and let them know we’d still be there, but would possibly be running a little late. When we finally got there, Bennie was perfect. There’s something amazing about his unique markings – I’ve never seen another Frenchie like this.
Anyway. I just about lost my mind training a puppy – I’d never actually done that before. And it all kind of fell to me, because I was working from home and Ken was working hybrid. Funny… Ken is the one who wanted the puppy, but the majority of the puppy phase fell on my plate. Hmmm. (Ken, if you’re reading this, you suck lol).
Bennie was very smart. And neurotic. But we love him. Once, he was in his pen in our room upstairs when I went downstairs to ask Ken something. We heard a crash and bolted back up the stairs to find Bennie shaking and terrified… with my computer monitor on the floor next to him. Apparently the pen was too close to the desk and one cord was hanging just low enough. He was fine, just freaked out. But I swear, if it weren’t for that face… he would’ve had a new home haha
We weren’t sure what was going on – redness on his face and paws, itching constantly, and other symptoms that I can’t even remember right now. But we took him to the vet, and they recommended removing poultry from his diet for a few weeks to see what happens. We did, and everything cleared up. Apparently, Bennie is allergic to poultry. Good luck finding truly poultry-free dog food and treats. Everything has chicken or turkey in it. Had to read the labels on hundreds of packages to find just a few that he could eat.
He’s actually a very good boy, even if I do complain about his naughtiness. He trained very quickly and easily. He learned sit, stay, and lay down before 6 months. And was house trained and crate trained by then, too. We got lucky with this one. But my favorite thing? We taught him to “pop a wheelie”. We’re motorcycle people, so we thought that was way more fun and fitting than “stand” to get him to stand up on his hind legs and balance. He can balance for like five whole minutes lol
Bennie also appointed himself “head of security”. Anytime something happens on the security cameras, Bennie is on high alert. When Ken gets up from his desk, Bennie jumps into his office chair and watches the camera feed to make sure all is well. He might not actually DO anything about it, but hey, he can’t do it all, right??
But he’s my little buddy. He’s 100% a mama’s boy. So Ken may have gotten to choose the pup, but I got his heart.
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