Paw Partner Adventures: Benny

Meet Benny.

Benny is a 3 year old Cairn Terrier/mix. And to quote a little girl we passed in the parking lot, "that puppy is so hairy."

Once again, I called the shelter ahead of time and asked if they had any high energy dogs that could go out for a run. No. How about any dogs I could take out with my own dog? No. Okay. I changed out of my running clothes, apologized to the yellow dog, and headed to the shelter.

Today's Paw Partner pup was such a sweetie. I have found most of the shelter dogs seem almost indifferent at first. I mean, they're all happy to get out for a walk, but most don't seem to care so much about the human on the other end of the leash and take a little while to warm up. Not Benny. Benny was like this: "hi,ilikeyou,doyoulikeme,isthataleash,arewegoingforawalk,ilikewalks,ilikeyou,doyoulikeme" and not just his tail, but his whole body was a-wigglin and a-wagglin.

The 15 minute car ride to the metro park was interesting. When I first put him in the car, he sat right down on the floor like he had done this a million times and knew the plan. Silly me. Once we were on the road, it was a different story. First, he was up on the passenger seat, nose out the window, off the seat, in my lap, on the floor, in the back seat, on the floor, on my lap again, on the floor, in the passenger seat...you get the idea. So once he was still long enough for me to reach him, I used one hand to basically hold him in one spot until we arrived.

I would describe Benny as energy with fur on it. He didn't slow down even a little and we completed the 3 mile hilly loop in a record breaking 49 minutes. And that's with a couple of stops (so I could catch my breath). I was wishing I hadn't changed from running clothes to jeans and hiking boots because 1. I'm pretty sure Benny could have run the whole way and 2. I was getting overheated at our record breaking pace.

Benny kind of reminded me of a teddy bear hamster on an exercise wheel: he just put his little nose down and went. Fast. Don't let those short little legs fool you. Benny took this walking thing seriously. He meant business.

It was a beautiful day for a hike and we both a good time.

We took a quick break at the creek so Benny could get a drink.

And Benny loved all the new outdoor smells. 

Once we made it back to the car, I sat down in the grass and Benny promptly crawled into my lap and tried to lick my chin. I'm pretty sure he was saying: thankyou,thatwasfun,canwedoitagian,ilikeyou,doyoulikeme,yea,letsdothatagain.