BENSON SNELL

I dearly miss “Benson” our dog and child for 5 years. When I prepared everything so that he could be taken away, I felt like I was giving up on a child of ours.

Clearly, he was not a family dog. He was though a warm body of fur that I could hold. The 4 of us could watch television and he could be fast asleep. We gave him Trazadone to keep him sleepy. However, he would come into consciousness, look around to see that the house was safe. The he would fall back to sleep.

We failed him. We did not know how to socialize him to be part of the group. Rather, he wanted to be the alpha of the group. I still see the back of his head as I petted him and how we talked to each other by sharing eye contact.

And then he was gone in an instant. He was totally surprised and defeated. He had already spent a year with a terrible owner and now us now we turned on him. All the floors were wood so he could no longer urinate on the carpet. He needed to be outside four times a day. He broke our bond when he refused to go outside at all.

My back is better, but my heart has not healed. Good-bye Benson, we hope that someone can encourage you to be slightly kinder and more compatible with another family.

Good bye.

Joel

Spring 2021