Where did Beeno come from?

Beeno wasn't our first choice.

I adopted him with a now ex-boyfriend. Beeno was the best thing to come out of that relationship. In fact, when I told him I was leaving, he asked me if Beeno was coming with me.

A rhetorical question, to be sure.

We went to the Niagara County SPCA. We were looking for a boxer or a boxer mix. We saw one. We took him to a small kennel to see how we interacted. He wanted nothing to do with us.

Then we chose a different dog - I don't remember the breed. Same reaction.

Then Beeno. I remember seeing him behind the cage. He seemed to be smiling and laughing. His tail was wagging. I said, 'let's take a look at him.'

He came right up to us and wanted attention and affection. He didn't stop.

He was our dog.

He was my dog.

Third in line, first in my heart and soul.

And that's where he stayed.

We named him Beeno. In our foolishness, we thought let's rhyme names. Beeno rhymed with his last name.

We started spelling it Beano, until we realized that would mean we named him after an intestinal gas prevention liquid. Someone even asked us if he had gas. So we changed the spelling, but not the pronunciation.

After I left the boyfriend, I started calling him Bean (but still spelled his name Beeno).

I invited my good friend over to see the newest member of our family.

It was then that we discovered that he would only go to the bathroom on the perimeter of the yard. He would poop in the bushes, pee in the bushes and grass. We didn't know what to make of that. Then we called him over - it seemed as though he knew his name right away, as I recall. We never had a transition to speak of. He was able to sit, give you his paw and lay down.

Someone had taken the time to train my dog. And train him well.

But someone had let him run away and didn't try to find him.

Over the decade I had him, he would run away at my mother's, but would return. He ran away in West Seneca once, got lost, but was found and was happy to be home. He returned. Always.

Which made me think that he ran away or was dumped.

Who on Earth could have done that to Beeno?

But thank you for doing that to Beeno.

If you hadn't, I wouldn't have known the joy I experienced over the past ten years.

I still feel as though my joy was cut short. But, oh, what an experience.