Benson, a very good dog

I miss having a personal blog the most during moments of shopping vanity/tough decisions.

New guy’s birthday is on Saturday. Rooftop thing starting in the afternoon and going into the night. Is this too “Hi I’m new here, look at my midriff!”? Also, we are committed to midriffs being a for-sure thing for summer 2k13, right? Does your answer change if I tell you the top is leather? Does it change again if I tell you I’m nearly 30?

Halp.

Mother’s Day 2013.

Shaddup, it counts.

Fancy hotel rooms with a view are great, but there’s nothing like my robe + bed + fan + B.

I wish I could tell you how quietly proud I am over my lack of sore muscles from yesterday’s race. I haven’t always been the most diligent trainer for marathons past and to feel so good the day after is a feeling of accomplishment in and of itself.

Tucking in very early tonight with an abundance of gratitude for this sweet life and the realization that it truly is what we make of it.

Benson is currently somewhere in southern Illinois answering to “Enson”as I stole the ‘B’ from his collar to tuck into my pocket when I run the marathon on Sunday.

He did 75% of my training runs with me. I couldn’t not have him with me on the big day.

This is Benson’s current favorite bone. He is with my parents as I’m going to be in Vancouver, BC this weekend to run their marathon with my sister. !!!

Because I like to project human-like emotions onto B, I think that he left this on my bed as a “I want you to have this - go get ‘em, Mom!” thing.

Official: Benson is outliving the 3-6month life expectancy prognosis his vet gave him.

Everybody dance! And get into my nook for snuggles!

While you do that, I’ll be over here legally changing his name to Benson “The Boy Who Lived” Burke.

You guys remember Glenn, right?

He continues to be involved with B as, well, Benson absolutely loses his mind for him. Cartoon hearts shoot out of Benson’s eyes when he sees Glenn. G picks up B for hikes occasionally and we’re going to walk him together on Thursday as that is the day B is officially outliving his prognosis.

Anyway. Glenn makes this easier and I am grateful he is still in my life.

@landofthepine

Yesterday my good friend @eeeemmmmm came over to help me bake a blueberry pie (irrelevant, yet delicious detail). While it was in the oven, we were catching up on my deck with B in the yard and all of the sudden, he just trotted over to the side gate, climbed it in a flash, and was off sprinting down the street. And the thing is that I live a half block from a very busy street and he is not pausing to look both ways before crossing. He generally sticks to our go-to running route, so the trick is catching up to him when he inevitably gets distracted to mark. This was the fourth time this happened last week. Unsupervised yard privileges are officially revoked.

I’ve fallen into some pretty intense and frightening Internet rabbit holes that suggest different things. Like that the cancer is affecting his brain and making him confused as to his surroundings. And it being a pre-death instinct to escape. I’ve also read that animals seek solitude to deal with pain as a biological reaction to not show weakness. I’m choosing ignorance and denial and making sure he gets all the walks to get his energy out and backyard supervision. I’m talking to his vet tomorrow to chat about putting him on the pain meds he hasn’t shown any signs of needing up until this point. Not quite sure what else I can do because the little guy can climb a chain link like a gd ladder.

Thanks for asking.