My Boy Ben

My Boy

This is my boy and my best friend.

A few months after my husband passed away, I had moved down to where I now live – that was over 10 years ago.

One morning as I opened my front door, who did I see standing outside my screen door but this beautiful and very excited beast (although he was a lot younger and skinnier in those days). He was so excited in fact that his whole back end was wagging.  (he doesn’t have a tail)

I opened the door and invited him in, of course, what else would I do?  He declined initially, a little shy, at least that was his initial reaction.  That didn’t last long however, once in he decided he was going to stay.  That was fine with me.

I placed notices around town just to make sure he wasn’t being missed by someone – nobody replied.  I decided to take a walk to town a few days later and put a leash on him.  That was strange for him, he had never been on a leash before.  We made it to town and back if a little hesitantly on both our parts.  It wasn’t long after that I received a telephone call from a girl saying she had seen me and “her dog” walking. During the telephone conversation I discovered she was a young girl of 10 years old by the name of Terri.  She and her family lived close to me and they had quite a few dogs, of which Ben had been one.  (Terri had named him Karma).

They all lived outside under an old table!!  She told me that it was OK for Ben to live with me,  and that  ”they had plenty of dogs”.  She added, “he chose you so he should stay where he is”.  I was so touched by the way she spoke that I invited her to come and visit whenever she wanted, and she did frequently.

I had never really owned a dog before so I had some learning to do.

A week or two later Ben and I went on a little trip to Flagstaff to visit with a friend and while there we took Ben to the vet to get him checked out and neutered.  He got a clean bill of health thankfully and while there I was told he was approximately 1 year old.

He is a mix of Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler and ?  As you see from his very beautiful photo he is tri-colored – black/reddish/white.

The next few years was an education.  Ben had been used to just going on little trips with his brother or sister and so he didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t continue this practice.

I live in a very rural area on an almost 2 acre horse property.  In those early days it was rare to see any traffic around here so it was fairly safe for him to move around freely.  More than once,  in the middle of the night, I would get a telephone call from someone who Ben had attached himself to and be petted.

The caller would ask me if Ben belonged to me and to inform me where they were.  The finder would always bring him home for me.  On one occasion he had gone to visit Cliff Castle Casino. (about 5 miles away  in Camp Verde).

Of course when I look back I shudder to think that he was wandering around like that on his own.  I did find out that his partner in crime always got back home without anybody’s help.

Here’s more pics.

"I just know it's there somewhere!!!"

Ben and myself back in the early days 1999/2000

When he is at the creek he goes into what I like to call his Zen mode.  He just seems to stare into the water and be totally still.  I have often thought that if we all did this from time to time we would be a lot healthier mentally.

His other favorite thing to do, apart from eat of course, and to roll in cow or horse poop (of which there is plenty of each around here),  is to fish out large rocks or tree limbs.  The larger the better.  He loves it when I or someone else throws rocks or tree limbs into the creek so that he can retrieve them.  However when he does retrieve these various items he carries them off and hides them.

Shaking off

"I suppose I have to share with that damn cat again!!!!"